Pokemon Rising Champions
by Darksage95
Summary: Luna Whykurt seemed like your typical teenage girl, that is, until she fell through a portal into the world of Pokemon. Joined by Adair and Lucif, they embark on a quest to become pokemon masters. Meanwhile, Shadow gets turned into a human after arriving in the pokemon world. Will this group be able to save the world from Team Rocket? Will Mewtwo help them in their quest?
1. Prologue

Book 1: Kanto

_**Auraninja: **__Hey, this is my first Pokemon fanfic and my first posted story. Please review and be nice. (That means no flames!) _

_**Mewtwo: **__You know, among all of the humans I've come across, you are the stupidest I have ever met._

_**Auraninja: **__What! How'd you get here?_

_**Mewtwo: **__My psychic powers have no limits. I can teleport anywhere, remember?_

_**Auraninja: **__Oh right. Hey, wait! You called me stupid. That's not nice! What's gotten into you? I'm one of your biggest fans who has praised you ever since I was 3. And this is how you repay me? Since what did I do to upset you this much?_

_**Mewtwo: **__How about the fact that you do not own Pokemon and all that nonsense you humans need to say every time you do something like write a fictional story based off of an existing one?_

_**Auraninja: **__Hey, I was just getting there. And it's called fanfiction. Seriously, for a pokemon who has a brain stronger than a supercomputer, you sure can be thick-headed._

_**Mewtwo: **__*growls*_

_**Auraninja**__: Thanks Mewtwo, for making me look like an idiot. Anyway, here's my disclaimer. I do not own Pokemon or any of the anime/game characters in the story. (Except for the ones I created)_

_Oh, one more thing; if you're wondering if this is the same Luna from __Mewtwo Returns__, well it's not. Luna is an original character from my imagination. So please no riots. Well then, enjoy: P_

Prologue

"Hey Grandpa! Are you ready yet?" yelled a certain red-haired boy.

"Just a minute, Gary! I'm almost done!" replied Professor Oak. Gary folded his arms and rested his head with impatience.

It was a beautiful Saturday morning with not a cloud in the sky. Because it was so sunny, all of the Pokemon were out either playing or doing their business. Gary couldn't pass this opportunity up, especially the fact that he was aiming to be a top Pokemon expert. After all, he loved Pokemon, just like his grandfather. Earlier today, he waltzed into his lab and told the professor that he wanted to study the Pokemon by the beach. Oak, being the carefree man he is, decided that it would be a nice break from his research. However, he had other plans for his grandson's little outing.

"Okay, I'm ready!" the professor roared.

"Oh, finally!" said Gary with relief.

Professor Oak walked out of his room adjacent to the stairs on the second floor. Gary looked up at his mentor and couldn't help but gawk at him. The professor appeared to be wearing a red beach shirt splattered with palm trees. Along with that, he had blue beach trunks on, black sandals, sunglasses, and a straw hat. Whereas Gary was only wearing a light blue polo shirt, office pants, and his usual lab coat.

"Grandpa! What are you wearing?" Gary retorted while clenching his fists.

"What, this?" Professor Oak said looking down at his outfit.

"Why, this is my beach outfit of course. After all, we are going to the beach, right?" he added.

"I didn't say we were going to play at the beach! I said we were going to study the Pokemon there!" the teen retorted with fire in his eyes.

"Oh, cheer up Gary. Like I always say," said Oak preparing one of his stupid poems. "_A day on the beach is not complete without some play at least. _Plus, your attire just won't go with today. At least wear a T-shirt or something. You'll get wet."

"But," Gary was about to answer until he was rudely interrupted by his grandfather.

"Seriously, Gary. You should lighten up a bit. It'll be fun," the professor said with a grin as he sprinted out the front door.

"Come on! What are you waiting for?" Oak bellowed.

Regrettably, Gary heaved out a sigh and followed him.

1 hour later

Gary was enjoying the surroundings. It had been a long time since he had a chance to relax and smell the salty air. He even found the rolling of the waves to be the most relaxing sensation. It wasn't like a soft pull and a little slap or a huge tug and a giant crash, but more like a moderate tug and release. Just as he was about to take a deep breath, a small group of Pokemon consisting of a pink Shellos, a Krabby, a Hoppip, and a Cleffa ran towards him for his company from the underbrush behind him. With their cries and smiling faces, it was obvious that they were happy to see him.

"Hey, it's been a while. How've you been doing?" he asked the little pokemon. All of which replied with more cheers, and of course, all hugging him simultaneously.

"Ow, hey easy there. I can't breathe!" he gagged. At that statement, all of the pokemon let go of him to give him some air.

"_Ah, I wish everyday were like this_." He thought to himself.

Just then, a voice sounded a few feet from the shoreline.

"Gary, check me out!" his grandfather called. Gary looked in his direction with curiosity. He could see the shirtless man he recognized as his grandpa and could only squint at him.

"What is it, gramps?" he complained.

"Look, I'm a Sharpedo!" he yelled. He clamped his hands together then dove underwater, leaving his "artificial fin" up. Every few seconds, he'd make a quick jump for air like a dolphin and laugh hysterically.

"Geez, either all that research was getting to him or he drank too much sake last night," Gary mumbled.

Just then, another pokemon, an Igglybuff, came running to him from the east. It's face filled with worry and urgent for help.

"Igglybuff! Iggly-igglybuff!" the little pokemon cried as it was waving its pink arms in the air.

"What is it, what's wrong?" Gary questioned the red-eyed creature.

"Igglybuff!" it replied as it pointed to his right.

"You want me to follow you?" he figured.

"Buff!" it answered truthfully.

"Okay, lead the way." Gary got up from the soft white sand and followed the Igglybuff along the shoreline. Not knowing what was going on, the other little pokemon followed him with such eagerness and curiosity on what was going on. A few minutes passed and Gary was just running out of stamina when he saw what looked like a small black form by the water. Wanting to get a closer look, he ran faster until he could start to make out the shape.

"Whoa, it's a pokemon!" he found out as he was just a few yards away from it. When he at last arrived by the pokemon's side and knelt by it, he could make out its characteristics and identify what it was. "Wait a sec! It's a Vaporeon!"

He then noticed that this Vaporeon was covered in bruises, scrapes, and cuts all over its body. It appeared to be unconscious so it was his chance to investigate.

"It's in bad shape. We better get to a Pokemon Center pronto!" he said. He took out a small pokeball from his pocket and pressed the button to enlarge it. He then held it out and sent out his companion, which turned out to be a towering Arcanine. With a loud roar, it shuffled its mane and shook its fur, showing that it was ready to help his friend.

"Arcanine, this Vaporeon is badly hurt. You think you can carry the two of us to the Pokemon Center?" he pleaded to his teammate.

Arcanine roared in reply and allowed Gary to set the injured pokemon on its back along with him. With not a moment to lose, the fiery canine sprinted through the underbrush towards the Pokemon Center.

At the Pokemon Center

The Pokemon Center was having its usual over packed schedule again. A whole hoard of Chanseys and Blisseys continuously ran to and fro in the main hall, desperately trying to help any injured pokemon in need. Along with that, a number of trainers keep coming in to the reception desk asking one of the chanseys and or assistants to help with their wounded companions. Meanwhile, in the south hall, Gary was staring through the window glass of the rehabilitation room. The Vaporeon he found on the beach laid there on one of the rehabilitation cases. Its breathing stiff and quick and its eyes shut tight. From the corner of his eye, he could see Nurse Joy approaching him.

"Nurse Joy, please tell me its okay," he implored to the young woman.

"It's all right Gary. The Vaporeon you found definitely suffered from a beating, possibly from a battle, but nevertheless, he's going to be okay." Nurse Joy reassured the boy.

"Great," Gary replied with reassurance.

"However, he will need a place to recover once he gets discharged from the Pokemon Center. After all, since he received brutal injuries such as these, it would be best for him to get some fresh air, run around a bit, and get its strength back up," she informed.

Gary thought for a moment and thought of an idea. He pointed his right index finger up and told the nurse.

"I got it! Grandpa and I can take care of it back at the lab," he responded.

"At the Pokemon lab? Why that's a splendid idea!" she agreed with joy.

"Yeah, there's a ton of space to run around in, a bunch of pokemon to play with, and a lot of food supplies. It's perfect!" he yelled.

"Then it's settled. Until it's regained its full strength, this vaporeon will be under your supervision," the nurse announced to him.

"Great! I'll go and tell Grandpa about the news!" he cried as he dashed down the hall, passed a wandering chansey with warm towels and out the door. On the other hand, the Vaporeon they thought was sleeping heard the entire conversation. He frowned at the fact that he will have to spend some time in the midst of humans. Being so uncomfortable around them, he shook his head and sulked back to sleep, hoping that this was just a bad dream that could disappear.

_Well, what do you think so far? I know it was a little shorter than I expected, but it is still the prologue. Like I said before, please review and send some feedback. Oh yeah, if you have any ideas that you think I should add into the story, feel free to post them. I'll take a look at them when I have the chance. Okay then, next up, Chapter 1._


	2. The Journey Begins

_Sorry about the holdup, I had some homework to finish. Damn you Chemistry! Anyway, here's Chapter 1. Enjoy!_

Chapter 1

Belas Cove

Greenwood, Ohio

May 16, 2010

It was night. Well, not really nighttime, but it was more like sunset. Countless store signs lit up as if fireflies came out to create a summer lightshow. In the quiet neighborhood of Greenwood, everyone seemed to be in a hurry. Day or night, they bustled everywhere, since the season of summer was fast approaching. This included the students of Oakland High of course. The season of summer means last minute exams as well. This was all normal routine for Luna Whykurt.

Luna was any other average teenager. Smart, cute, funny, and the fact that she's half goth. No, not like the "I worship Satan and the darkness" goth. Today, she's wearing a red and black T-shirt with the mischievous grinning face of Jack Skellington, a jean skirt with black denim jeggings, black boots, and her most prominent feature; a small bat-winged heart shaped necklace with a blue jewel in the center. She just likes to wear black, listen to rock music, and having the worst case of freaking out at everything. But in the end, she always has a way of brushing it off and moving on. Right now, however, is a different story.

"Luna, get down here!" bellowed her mother.

"What! I'm doing my homework!" the teen shouted. She grunted before putting her face back on her history textbook.

"No, I know you're lying! You are not doing your homework! You're probably just watching TV on that laptop of yours or playing videogames on your Nintendo DS!" she yelled with enough force to make a nearby person go deaf.

"Ugh, fine," she grunted as she stepped out of her cozy blue room to go downstairs to the kitchen.

By the time she arrived there, her mother stood there with cold, heartless eyes. Seeing that this was another one of her mother's complaints or temper tantrums toward her, Luna prepared for the worst. For in her arms was her work laptop and the one website that Luna wished the school board had never told her parents about; .

"What's the meaning of this?" she questioned her so called 'delinquent' daughter.

"What do you mean? Mom, what's wrong?" Luna replied with worry.

"What's wrong? I'll tell you what's wrong; most of your grades here have turned into C's," she complained. She then turned the laptop around towards her daughter and showed her the results. Luna looked closely and noticed that her Chemistry grade had dropped to a C+. Her mother was expecting a scream out of her, but she did nothing but shrug her shoulders.

"So, it's a C+. It's a passing grade," she explained.

"No it's not. People who get C's are people who end up working as a store clerk or in McDonalds. I raised you so that you could be above the rest. You know, where I came from, I had no one to tell me to study for any tests or quizzes at school because they were all busy. And you know what I did?" she told her as she set her laptop down and put her hands on her hips.

"Okay, what'd you do?" Luna played along.

"I studied on my own accord. What I want you to become is an office accountant or a computer programmer like your father and I," her mother added.

"Well, what if I don't want to become an accountant or a programmer? Those jobs are boring! All I've ever wanted to be when I grow up is a musician! Why don't you care about that?" Luna wailed.

"Because I'm your mother and you have to do as I say! As long as you live in my house, you have to abide by my rules!" she pointed her finger and touched her nose.

"Get your filthy finger off my face. Plus, I'm 15; I'm almost an adult now so you need to give me a little bit more freedom! Like letting me have a boyfriend or going to my friends' parties more often. Heck, I want to start driving a motorcycle; not some stupid stake-shift car!" she continued.

Her mother took a step back after hearing her own flesh and blood talk back at her. She had never been so horrified in her life. All she wanted to do right now was to set her back in her place.

"Silence! That's it; I've had it with you and your proud attitude. Starting tomorrow, you will work in your father's office and sort out every single one of his employees' files. No breaks in between, from now until the end of three months," her mother ordered.

Luna knew that she was at a standstill. But, she wasn't the type that would "bow down" before a pushover adult like her mother. She clenched her fists and stood her ground before she replied back to her.

"Never," was her only answer. She turned around and started her way back to her room. Her mother, now driven off the edge, stomped toward her and grasped her right wrist tightly; her nails digging into her skin, making it bleed.

"How dare you! You have no right to talk to your own mother that way. Now I want you to hand over your laptop, your ipod, and your DS to me right now. I will lock them up in a safe so that you will never get back until you complete your job," she demanded.

Thinking quick, Luna broke free of her mother's grasp and knocked her off balance. She then ran quickly back into her room and slammed her door with force.

"Luna, you are a sick, spoiled, and a stupid child. I can't believe that one of my own daughters could torture me like this! What am I going to do with you?" she hollered.

Luna used one of her decisive thinking and told her the most logical answer she could think of. Holding back her tears, she took a deep breath and responded to her now furious mother.

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe you could send me to an orphanage. Or perhaps send me to another country. I don't care, as long as I'm away from you!" Luna screamed.

Mrs. Whykurt, now even more enraged, stomped her feet on the ground and screamed at the top of her voice.

"Yes, that's a grand idea. I'll send you away to a homeless shelter!" she answered.

"Okay, that'll be fine! At least I don't have to see your ugly, screaming face anymore!" Luna wailed back.

"Quiet! I don't want to see you for the rest of the day! Make that a week!" she howled.

"Fine! Because by tomorrow, I'll be gone!" Luna replied.

"Shut up!" her mother screamed.

"Go away and leave me alone! If you ever disturb me, I swear I will strangle you by the neck!" Luna threatened.

"Don't!" she was about to speak.

"Shut the heck up! I hate you and I don't want to see or talk to you anymore! Can't you get that into your head?" she interrupted her mother for the last time.

With that said, her mother could say nothing more. She stormed out of the garage, started her car and left. All was quiet now that she was gone. Luna, not caring about what she had done, started devising a plan on escaping the hell she calls her home.

9:00 PM

There wasn't much in her room. Just blue painted walls, a lounge chair, a wooden dresser with a stack of drawers, a sliding closet just south of the outside window, a nightstand with a lamp, and a blue-monochromatic colored bed. This was her only place of sanctuary, away from her dictator-like mother, her father that's never around, and a younger sister that could never do anything to help. To Luna, every single day to her was a nightmare, but not anymore, because tonight, she is leaving forever.

It didn't talk her very long to plan her escape. She had already packed two changes of clothes, sneakers, her ipod plus charging supplies, her black-and-blue Nintendo DS plus charger, a bottle of water, some packs of granola bars, a toothbrush with toothpaste, and finally, a flashlight. As soon as she was finished stuffing all of her essentials into her medium sized book bag, Luna quickly opened her window to the outside world.

"Well, this is it. Time to leave this dump," she told herself with confidence.

Unfortunately, there was a downside to her escape; how to get down to the ground from a two story high house

"_Oh great, I forgot. Geez Luna, why'd you have to be stupid at a time like this?"_ she yelled in her thoughts. With a frown, she turned around and slumped on the carpet in front of her window. She sighed, knowing that escape couldn't be possible.

Then, the teen thought of something. She looked up at the curtains and gathered her thoughts.

"_Wait, that's it! I could use these curtains to create a rope!"_ confiding with her own idea, the Jack Skellington fan hastily ripped the curtains off the window pane and tied them together. After that, she connected the makeshift rope onto one of her bedposts before starting to climb down. As soon as she touched ground, the young teen made a break for the exit of the neighborhood.

"Okay, all I have to do is head from here until I reach the "haunted" house. It wasn't really haunted; her family called it that since it was so old that it looked like it would crumble to pieces any day. Luna knew that wouldn't happen; once she found that the interior was supported by four iron pillars. Knowing that a house wouldn't collapse with those, she chose that house as her hiding place, since no one would bother to look for her there. She then smiled in triumph as she passed the Belas Cove exit.

Meanwhile, back in the Pokemon world…..

Somewhere deep underground, a group of people were digging around a mining tunnel looking for something. A few days ago, they had received orders from their boss to look for something that was critical in their master plan; a plan for world domination, or so their boss said.

"Yeesh, why is the boss making us dig here again?" a grunt asked his partner beside him with an exhausted voice.

"I don't know, but from what I do know is, there isn't anything in this abandoned mine. Just rocks, slag, maybe some tiny fossils, and oh yeah, MORE ROCKS!" he yelled back at his neighbor.

"Will you two stop your bickering and get back to work!" the voice of a teenage girl, their high-and-mighty supervisor, nagged. Knowing that she's their superior, the two men immediately went back to work.

"Uh, ma'am?" a thin looking grunt approached her from nearby.

"What!" she gritted her teeth.

"You'd better come and take a look at this," he inquired with no fear.

"Ugh, this better be good. If it's more slag, then you can kiss your raise goodbye," she warned her employee.

A few minutes passed and she reached the section of the tunnel where the grunt had told her what he had found. What she had seen had probably made almost anyone blind. Lying on the dirt covered tray was a brown colored shining shard. This wasn't like any ordinary diamond you'd find in a mine, because it gave off a light that could act like an improvised lantern.

"Well, I guess you get that raise after all," she said with a mischievous smile. When she was about to touch it, the light got brighter as a powerful surge of energy erupted from the shard. The pulse was so strong; it knocked every single one of the workers from their positions and either left them unconscious or with minor bruises.

Rancher's Road

At the same time, Luna was halfway towards her destination. She had just passed a local farm, along with the smell of manure. She grimaced in disgust even after a few seconds of being in the area.

"HOLY CR!" she was about to finish her curse before she bent over in sickness.

"Man, that's just wrong. At least clean them up before you go to bed!" she complained.

"_Crap, I think I'm going to be sick…"_ she thought to herself. _"Okay, just little further and I can lie down on a nice comfy sofa."_

Suddenly, right after she was about to run again, a portal of swirling blue energy opened behind her. Before she could turn around to look, she got sucked into the swirling mass. The image of the road she saw was shrinking smaller and smaller until the entrance closed in.

"AAHH! What's going on!" she screamed as she fell further from safety. All around Luna were countless stars and planets passing by. Like a comet, she was literally flying through space; or so she thought it was. For some particular reason, she started to gain speed. As she gained speed, the stars around her have become blurs to the naked eye. Seeing this phenomenon, Luna looked ahead and saw a blue light getting brighter and brighter. Not knowing that this was her destination, she prepared for the worst.

"NO! I'm too young to die!" the teen cried before being engulfed in the cerulean glow.

_Okay, cliffhanger time. Yep, Luna is quite the screamer. I kind of had to think about what she had to say to her mom before she ran away. It took me about two days to develop it. Well, I hope you enjoyed it. And don't forget to review and send comments. _


	3. The Arrival

_All right! Here it is the long awaited next chapter. Well, sort of. And without further ado, here's Chapter 2. (Hey, I just rhymed. Yay!)_

Chapter 2

May 17, 2010,

In a forest

Luna felt very drowsy once she regained conscious. For a few seconds, she had a sensation where she was almost about to throw up. Being the crazy youth she is, Luna thought that this was what it was like to be dead. Just then, she heard birds chirping along with a soft breeze blowing through the trees.

"_Huh, this is what it's like to be dead. Kind of relaxing I should say,"_ she thought to herself. She slowly moved her fingers to rub her eyes. When she slowly lifted them, she swore that she could feel soft grass under her fingertips. Not under her fingertips, but around her entire body as well. All of a sudden, the black-haired teen thought of something that should of happened to her, but didn't.

"_Wait, if this is grass that I'm feeling right now, then that means…"_ the girl realized.

She immediately opened her eyes only to see that she was looking at a blue sky patterned with fluffy tufts of clouds. Just adjacent to them were lush green trees being blown by the wind. Since it was very sunny, the sun's rays bled through the leaves creating the illusion of an artistic stained glass. The young girl quickly got up and rubbed her eyes. However, once she regained her entire vision, she had failed to see what was surrounding her. For when Luna woke up, she could see that five small Pokemon were encircled around her. The small Pokemon, consisted of a Buneary, an Oddish, a small Pidgey, a Spinarak, and a Wooper. Luna could only stare at them for a brief moment before…..

"AAHH!" the youth's screams permeated throughout the area. Her scream was so loud that it could have kick-started an avalanche, if the forest was even bordering a snow capped mountain.

"Pokemon! Here? No, this can't be right. You can't be real!" she cried.

"Wait, this is probably one of those hallucinations people keep talking about, right? Or possibly a dream? Yeah, that's it. All I need to do is wake up!" responding to her theory, she used her thumb and index finger to pinch her right arm as hard as she could. In response, she winced in pain.

"Ow! Okay, I felt that one," she then thought of the Pokemon that were around her, their faces filled with wonder and confusion.

"Hey, you there, Wooper. You think you can lend a hand here? I want you to spray me with a water gun, alright? Can you please do it in my face?" she politely demanded while trying to stay calm.

Wondering why a human would ask of him to perform a water gun at her, he smiled thinking that this was some kind of game. Seeing this, Luna then shut her eyes tight and held her breath.

"Wooper!" it replied before spraying the strongest water gun in her face.

"Eeks!" she said while she was being sprayed. The Wooper stopped its attack after a few seconds.

"Am I awake yet?" she asked herself. She opened her eyes only to see that she was still in the forest clearing with the Pokemon. "Oh, well that didn't work."

Happily cheering the Pokemon wished to play with their new friend. Before they could get closer to her, she screamed and ran off. Before she knew it, she was out of the forest and was running toward the nearby town of Pallet.

"Gotta find a hospital, gotta find a hospital!" she shouted as she zipped past a couple houses.

"AGH!" the young girl cried as she bumped into someone.

"Huh?" the person was curious on who accidentally bumped into him and wanted to see who it was. Luna looked up to see a man dressed in a red shirt, beige pants, and a white lab coat.

"Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry! I didn't even know you were there!" Luna hyperventilated.

"That's okay my dear. I was just taking a little stroll and stopped just to take a break," the middle aged man replied.

"You seem to be in some kind of predicament, I presume?" he added.

"Yeah, I kind of am! How'd you know that?" the girl questioned.

"Oh, I know things. Since we've got all the time in the world for a chat, why don't we continue this in my lab?" he continued.

"Your lab?" the girl asked being confused on where it was.

"It's not far; it's just up the hill," he turned around and pointed to the house on the hill. The lab looked just a regular white house, only this time; it had an electric windmill by it.

"Okay," Luna said in a questioning response. They both started walking up the hill until Professor Oak stopped to ask her one last question.

"By the way, what's your name?" he asked.

"My name's Luna; Luna Whykurt," she replied.

"Luna, eh? Pleasure to meet you!" he said with a smile.

"My name's Professor Oak."

Luna and Professor Oak were sitting in the lounge room next to the lab. Luna sat on one of the green sofas while the professor sat on the other right across from her. She left her bag on the far side of the sofa since she was tired from carrying it everywhere with her. They were busy drinking their tea when Gary came in through the corridor.

"Hey, Grandpa. I just came back from the grocery and," the red-haired boy was about to continue until he caught sight of the new visitor.

"Whoa! Who's this?" Gary jumped in surprise.

"Oh yes, I was about to call you before I made some tea, but," the professor was interrupted when a taller boy wearing a green shirt came running through the doorway.

"Professor! I heard Gary yell. Is something wrong?" the boy asked. He then saw Luna who was staring at him with the cup of tea still in her hands.

"Oh, hello there," was all the boy could say.

"Ah, Tracey. You're just in time for tea. Everyone, I would like you all to meet our guest Luna," Oak introduced her after he sipped his tea.

A little embarrassed, Luna could only blush when the two boys looked at her.

"Hi," she waved her hand weakly showing that she's a little shy. A few moments later, Gary sat right beside the young teen on her right while Tracey sat on her left.

"Hey, I'm Gary. Sorry about earlier, I didn't even know we were having a guest," Gary greeted.

"And I'm Tracey," the boy next to her seconded.

"Since we're all here, Luna told me some time ago that she had a problem. Would you like to tell us what it is?" the professor kindly asked.

"You'll probably freak out if I told you," she warned.

"It's all right," Tracey said. "We get weird stuff around here all the time."

"Okay then," she said.

Luna told everyone that she was just taking a run in the neighborhood when she suddenly got sucked into a portal. She then explained about her little encounter in the forest and then ended with her collision with Professor Oak. Luna, fearing that the situation would cause more problems, did not tell them about her argument with her mother.

"Doesn't that make you an alien?" Tracey said.

Both the professor and Gary glared at him with squinted eyes. Luna, on the other hand, had a vein protruding on her forehead.

"Relax, I'm kidding," Tracey responded sheepishly. He had a sweat drop falling down his left cheek.

"Sheesh, can't you guys just take a joke?" Everyone then stopped glaring at him and continued with the conversation.

"So, this is still Earth, right?" Luna questioned.

"Yes, it is. This is the world of Pokemon. Judging from your story, that portal took you away from your dimension and transported you to ours," Professor Oak theorized.

"However," he had a look of concern on his face. "There is still a plethora of questions that are left unanswered. Who opened it? What created it? And why?"

"Hmm, those are all pretty good questions," Gary replied. A few seconds later, he asked Luna another question.

"So, how come you freaked out at the sight of the Pokemon in the woods?"

"Well, that's because…" said Luna with a bit of hesitation in her voice. "In my world, Pokemon don't even exist."

At that moment, they all just stared at her with shocked expressions. Tracey, who didn't think that he could handle it, fainted behind the sofa.

"You're kidding!" Gary exclaimed.

"I'm not kidding. Pokemon only exist in games and stories," she confessed.

"_I don't want to tell them that they're also on TV. They've already suffered enough,"_ she reasoned with herself.

"I can't believe it. A world without Pokemon? That's just crazy!" the former Pokemon trainer said.

"Yeah, I know. It's a lot to take in," Luna came next.

"Amazing, I never thought that there would be a whole other dimension other than ours," said Tracey, who just recovered from his fall.

"Uh-huh. And from the looks of it, I think I'll be stuck here for a while," the girl figured.

Professor thought for a moment and then answered with a grin. "Well then, that settles it. Luna, why don't you stick around here for a bit?"

"What?" she questioned.

"Yeah, there's an extra guest bedroom upstairs for you to stay in. Plus, you can help us around the lab. You can even help take care of the Pokemon here," the brown haired boy reasoned.

"Um," Luna was a little speechless.

"Come on, Luna. It'll be fun. Also, we don't get visitors very often, so you're pretty much the first in a while," Gary said.

Luna, not sure if it was a good idea, couldn't decide what to say. All she wanted was to get away from home to start a new life without her mother watching her back all the time. Since she is in another dimension, she won't have any contact with her family. Comforted by the thought, she responded to her hosts.

"Okay, I guess I can stay for a while," Luna replied with her spirits up.

"All right! Come on, I'll show you around!" Tracey, being crazy as he is grabbed Luna's wrist and ran off to give the tour of the lab.

Gary and Oak, witnessing the event, could only shrug their shoulders and laugh.

_Okay, that's it for Chapter 2. Yay, Luna's finally in the Pokemon World. Now things are going to get a little interesting. Stay tuned for the next chapter. Don't forget to post reviews and other possible ideas for this adventure._


	4. A New Partner, A New Friend

_**Auraninja: **__All right, Chapter 3 is done, done, and done. I worked on it all night on Saturday until my back hurt. Oh well, it was worth it. Hmm…that's odd, it's been quiet for a while. I wonder where…_

_**Mewtwo: **__You called?_

_**Auraninja: **__You! When did you get here?_

_**Mewtwo: **__Just now. I was meditating on a mountain until I heard your voice. _

_**Auraninja: **__Okay, then._

_**Mewtwo: **__One thing puzzles me, when do I make my appearance in the story?_

_**Auraninja: **__Patience, my psychic friend, for all will be revealed in due time. Whoa, that was weird; I just went all prophetic on you.____Speaking of which, here's Chapter 3. _

_Da-da-da-Da_ (Hooray for Zelda music!)

Chapter 3

_Luna had a dream that night. She dreamt that she was swimming through water. Well, it felt like swimming, but she wasn't putting any effort into her limbs. To her, it was more like flying. This was an amazing sensation to her, zipping past all the kelp and water Pokemon below her made her feel that she was a mermaid. The best part was, since it was a dream, she could breathe underwater. _

"_This just can't be a dream," Luna denied. "It's too good to be one." She then blurred past a school of Remoraid, breaking them apart until they got back together._

"_Oh well, if this is one, then I hope it doesn't end!" she laughed. A few moments more, she was swimming through soft, teal-colored sea grass. The little tendrils tickled her as she swam through them. Nevertheless, she pushed some groups aside before she continued swimming._

_Just then, something swam past her right side. Confused, she wanted to see what it was, but all she could figure out was that its features had been covered by shadows, making it hard to decipher. What she did know was that it was small and it was fast._

"_Huh, probably another remoraid," she figured. Afterwards, she finally made it out of the labyrinth of sea grass. Suddenly, up ahead, the same creature she saw a few moments ago was floating right in front of her. She pushed herself back so that she would give it a little bit more space. Now that it was in the open, the young girl could make out its appearance. It had bright pink fur, a long tail, and an almost feline look, except that it had big, bright blue eyes. Luna gasped, knowing that she knew what kind of a Pokemon it was._

"_A Mew? Here, underwater? That's new," she said._

"_Mew!" it cried before swimming off into the distance._

"_Wait! Come back!" Luna sped after it after it had left her. She tried to keep up with it, but its speed was unmatched. There was a bright light up ahead, the same one she went through when she arrived in the Pokemon world. Determined to catch up to Mew, she swam faster until she was hit by a jet of orange bubbly liquid. Pushed back by the force, she quickly recovered, but lost her sights on Mew. Around her, the scene changed from being underwater to blazing ruins. Everywhere, she could see the corpses of dead humans scattered around the floor, all of which were wearing lab coats._

"_Scientists?" she inquired before observing the surroundings again._

_The fire grew hotter and larger, creating even more smoke. Luna started coughing intensely, her only response was to cover nose and mouth and try to get out of there. She crawled on the floor, remembering from school that there was less smoke near the ground. _

_Then, she heard laughing. A man's laughing to be precise, sounding as if it were the devil himself. Infuriated, she looked around again, wanting to find the source and give him a piece of her mind. To no avail, she gave up on her search, until she looked up. Above her was a towering image of a shadowed person, no doubt the source of the accursed laughing._

"_What's so funny? Huh? Are you the one that caused this?" she questioned the dark person about the fire. He made no response, except for more laughing. _

"_I take back what I said!" she screamed in fear. The dream ended when the flames towered above her and engulfed her in the raging inferno._

May 18, 2010

Pallet Town

Luna woke up with a sweat drop falling down her cheek. Like most dreams she's had in the past, this one only left her with vivid images and a vague memory of what happened in it. The youth didn't understand why she had a dream like that, for this was the first dream she had that seemed like it was real. Nonetheless, a dream was a dream, so she brushed it off.

It was bright in her room, all because the sun's brilliant rays were gushing out her window. She could see her room clearly now that it was in the daylight. In front of her was the wooden mahogany dresser with a large circular mirror that was cluttered with supplies from her bag.

"Right, I forgot," she said with relief. "I'm not in Greenwood anymore."

She looked down and noticed that she was dressed up in her red, black, and white polka dot pajamas. At first, she didn't remember how she got into them, until she realized that she was so tired last night from her surprising experience that she didn't even notice dressing up in her PJ's.

"Luna, are you up yet?" hollered Tracey from downstairs.

"Yeah, now I am!" she yelled back.

"Well, come on down! Breakfast's ready!" he urged.

Quickly dressing up into her outfit from yesterday, she hurried downstairs in a flash. Luna found the guys sitting on a wooden table with the breakfast laid out for them. Tracey and Gary were wolfing down their food, like the hungry boys they were. She had a small breakfast, consisting of Oran Berry juice and toast with butter.

"_Interesting, I never thought that Oran berries would taste like a combination of blueberries and strawberries blended together,"_ she mentally told herself.

"So Luna, did you have a good sleep?" asked Professor Oak who was sitting on her right.

"Sure did. I haven't felt that good in weeks. I've always been busy working on countless school essays, which meant staying up until two in the morning," she answered.

"Well, at least that's not as bad as trying to give a delcatty a bath. Man, those things can really claw at you!" Gary complained.

"Wow, I can imagine that!" Luna agreed.

Everyone laughed at Gary's comment. They all continued eating their breakfast until about nine in the morning, when they all needed to start on their jobs for the day. Gary went with Professor Oak to the lab to help him with his research while Tracey invited Luna to come over to the back to take care of various trainers' pokemon.

Once they arrived, Luna saw that they appeared to be in a pasture-like area, with all the trainers' pokemon having fun and relaxing. Yesterday, Luna was afraid of the pokemon she encountered because of the fact that creatures like these don't exist in her world. But now that this is a fresh start in the pokemon world, she wasn't frightened of them anymore.

"All right, Luna. The first thing we need to do for today is to feed all the pokemon," Tracey told her.

Obeying him, Luna followed him to the small storage shed near the back door and started filling countless porcelain bowls with pokemon food. Not wanting to make the pokemon wait for a long time, she quickly filled all the bowls up with the cylindrical brown food before carrying them out to the field. Knowing that it was time to eat, the pokemon hurriedly ran near the girl and encircled around her. Since there were so many of them, she could only make out a couple Tauros, a couple of Oddish, a Jigglypuff, a small Vulpix, a Nidoking and a Nidoqueen. Seeing this, Tracey joined in to help her out.

"Hey guys. I know you're really hungry so calm down. By the way, this is Luna," he said showing his free right hand to her. "She'll be with us for a while so don't give her a hard time, okay?"

All the pokemon made sounds as they waited for their food. Luna and Tracey laid out all of the filled bowls scattered a few inches from each other, almost like a disfigured Chinese checkerboard. The girl enjoyed the sight of the pokemon eating, so she couldn't help but show a small smile.

But then, out of the corner of her eye, she noticed another pokemon sitting by the back door. The pokemon she saw looked sad and lonely; however, she didn't know that this was the Vaporeon Gary found the other day. Not knowing what it was doing there, she decided to go and investigate. Once she was near it, she knelt by it to see what was wrong.

"Hey, I didn't see you there. Don't you want to eat with the other pokemon?" she asked him in a gentle tone.

The Vaporeon only looked up at her with gloomy half-open eyes before looking back at the ground below.

"Oh, what's the matter? Did somethi," she was interrupted when the Vaporeon shot an ice cold water gun at her face. She screamed like a banshee while she was getting drenched. After a few seconds, the Vaporeon stopped and turned its head away from the already soaking girl. Tracey, who just saw it happen, was bewildered to see Luna sauntering back towards him.

"Whoa Luna, are you okay?" he could only ask.

"Yeah, fine and dandy," the drenched girl replied after spitting out a fountain of water.

"Come on, let's get inside and get you a dry towel," he told her.

Once inside, Luna was given a nice hot towel and some hot water to help dry her up. Tracey sat beside her and felt her forehead to make sure that she doesn't catch a cold.

"Well, I never expected that to happen," she said while she drank her water.

"Yeah, me neither. I'm surprised he didn't hit you with an aurora beam. He usually does that to Gary when he's around," Tracey replied.

"So, what's his problem?" Luna couldn't help but ask.

"Well," Tracey scratched his head. He decided to tell her about the time when Gary found the badly-beaten Vaporeon at the beach and the fact that he and Professor Oak decided to help it recover after its discharge from the pokemon center.

"Since then, he's been recovering at a fast pace, but he still wouldn't even play with the other pokemon or eat with them. Heck, whenever I try to help him out, he'd just run away from me," he concluded.

"Hmm," Luna pondered. "I wonder why?" The question still stuck with her throughout the rest of the day.

That same night, the Vaporeon remained in the same spot, gazing up at the silver coin that is the moon. It was thinking about the fact that the human girl earlier today tried to comfort him, but he refused any of her consent. But, that wasn't the main reason why it was so upset. It knew that the other pokemon would not accept what it is. It knew that they wouldn't even know what it is. It's just too complicated for them to understand. The aqua pokemon was busy contemplating about its own life, until a voice sounded nearby it.

"Figured I'd find you here again," the voice said.

Turning its head to the left, the water pokemon saw the same human girl from earlier approach it with a friendly smirk.

"Well," she grunted. "Mind if I sit down with you?"

Puzzled, the pokemon allowed the human to sit beside him. She then held her knees and gazed up at the moon as well.

"The moon sure is pretty tonight. Way prettier here than where I came from," she commented.

"Vapor," the Vaporeon replied with a weak cry. Noticing the mood he was in, Luna decided to try to dig deeper into the situation. Trying not to get on his nerves, she tried to keep up with the light atmosphere.

"Look, I don't know what's going on, but I can tell that something's bothering you," she figured.

The vaporeon looked up at the response she made with wide black eyes. He was stunned to see and hear that this human, one that he himself has never even seen before, could even stick around him without knowing that he was different.

"I might not know what the situation is, but I can try to make a guess. Tell you what, I'll tell you a secret. Promise not to tell the others?" she asked the eeveelution. Oddly enough, the pokemon nodded and listened to what she had to say.

"Okay, you probably know that I'm not from around here, right?" she questioned it. The Vaporeon slowly nodded again.

"Well, that's because I'm from a different dimension." Shocked about what she was saying, the pokemon could only perk its ears up to listen some more.

"Back where I'm from, the other kids at my school would tease and bully me around. I first tried to ignore them, but I couldn't help the fact that they were just uncomfortable around me. It took me a while to figure it out, but the reason that they kept on pushing me around was because," she paused for a moment because she was at the point of letting out a small tear.

"It was because….. I'm different," she said with her voice breaking. The Vaporeon was astonished to hear this. He never knew that he would meet a human, the one species that he was afraid of, that would understand what it was going through. He too, was at the point of crying.

"I told my dad about it afterwards. And do you know what he said?" she asked him. Luna paused for a moment to try to stifle in a couple tears before speaking again.

"He said that there's nothing wrong with being different. Because being different just expresses who you really are. Now, I know that I'm angry at my father for not being with me at the times when I needed him, but that was the only time when he truly supported me," the short-haired girl broke into tears. She cried for about a minute to try to let it all out at once. The vaporeon, feeling her pain, also let out a tear or two.

"So, now do you understand? Being different isn't all that bad; it's just kind of hard to adjust to. But, in the end, something good always happens," she dried her tears with her hands. Wanting to comfort her, the pokemon got closer to her and laid his frilled head on her chest. As a result, she placed both arms around his head and hugged him. She was expecting to feel smooth scales all over his body, but instead, the girl felt as if she were touching a dolphin.

"You don't have any friends, do you?" she asked another question. The water-type nodded its head and closed its eyes.

"It's okay, everything will turn out all right," Luna said softly. Getting tired, she closed her eyes and went to sleep.

The next morning, Luna was helping Tracey out with feeding and grooming the pokemon in the field. The young teen still felt a little sleepy from last night, so she was occasionally falling asleep. Tracey, however, was always alert and ready to go. Some time later, the Vaporeon noticed Luna falling asleep while washing the food bowls in the shed. Wanting to help her out, he did the only thing that would wake most humans up from a relaxing nap. He then took a step back from the girl and fired a really strong water gun at her.

"AAAHHH!" she cried; the blast of water immediately waking her up. When the pokemon was done with its little job, Luna was spitting out water and covering her nose with both hands.

"Eeks, my nose hurts!" the Jack-Skellington fan complained. Looking down, she finally realized that she had slept on her job. Turning around, the girl smiled and thanked her new friend.

"Thanks, I kind of needed the wake-up call," she gratified.

"Por," he replied back before laying its head in between its front paws and closed its eyes.

It took Luna about a few minutes before she was done with her chore. Her hands were all wet while her fingers got a little wrinkled from the water. Nevertheless, her job was done. To spend the rest of her day, she walked outside and lay on the grass to look at the sky.

"_Heh, that cloud looks like a Pikachu," _Luna thought as a cloud shaped like a pikachu's head floated by. She looked at the west direction and saw another cloud in a funny shape.

"_And that one looks like a Caterpie. Or is it a Weedle? Hmm, oh well, either one works," _she told herself again while a cloud with various bumps and a large head passed through the sky. Luna was having fun, even though this was an activity that she has never done before. Then, another cloud appeared at the same spot, only this time; it was something that made her giggle.

"_Well, would you look at that? I never thought I'd see a cloud like that at this time,"_ she chuckled as the vaporeon shaped cloud floated through the blue canvas. She got up and took a peek inside the shed to see the Vaporeon. Inside, he was just napping away, with not a care in the world. She giggled softly, making sure that she doesn't disturb his nap. Slowly backing off, she then went off into the field to take a walk.

Suddenly, a soft humming sounded in the tree area about twenty feet from where she was standing. Curious about what was going on, she cautiously walked closer to the forest. Unexpectedly, a helicopter emerged from the tree line and sent gusts of wind towards her, causing her to lose her balance.

The helicopter was roughly about the size of a small airplane, with a color as dark as night and shadowed windows that makes it hard to make out who the pilots were. The most striking feature, Luna noticed on both tail ends of the rotors, was a giant crimson-colored 'R'.

"Shoot, I forgot about these guys," Luna softly grumbled as she recovered from her fall.

"Luna! Are you okay?" a familiar voice asked from behind her.

The young teen whirled around and saw Gary, Tracey, and Professor Oak coming to her aid. Their faces all filled with expressions of concern. At that moment, a mecha-laser emerged out from the underside of the copter and started firing at its adversaries below. Tracey and Oak were screaming their heads off; frantically dodging all of the red beams of light like little school girls. Gary, being the experienced trainer he is, summoned one of his pokemon to protect the others.

"Quick!" he yelled as he threw one of his pokeballs. "Electivire, use protect!"

Just then, a huge yellow and black Electivire emerged from the pokeball in a luminous light. Letting out a roar, he crossed both of his arms together and created a greenish tint barrier to protect the guys. Relieved, the pokemon professor and the pokemon sketcher both stopped screaming, but they were still hugging each other like wimps they are. All of a sudden, another beam shot out of the laser, only this time, it was going directly for the defenseless Luna. The girl didn't have time to get away, since the red beam was approaching her at a high speed. Shutting her eyes tightly, Luna was about to scream, until she heard the sound of an attack in front of her.

Stunned, she opened her eyes and saw a rainbow-colored beam push the light out of her way. Wondering who did that, she looked to her far left and saw the Vaporeon standing there, ready for battle.

"Vapor!" he cried to Luna. Thinking that this was her chance to get away, she got up and hurried behind the blue pokemon for its protection. Amazed by what happened, Gary switched his gaze from the endangered duo to the mysterious attackers.

"I should've known you two would come back!" he hollered at them. The mysterious attackers cleared their windshields and revealed their faces. Before long, both of them, a young man and a woman, pulled out two handheld speakers from the control panel and spoke to them.

"Listen, is that a little complaint I hear?" the woman said.

"I think so, well then, let's make this quick since we're all here," the man seconded.

"Prepare for trouble and make it double!  
>To infect the world with devastation<br>To blight all peoples in every nation  
>To denounce the goodness of truth and love<br>To extend our wrath to the stars above  
>Cassidy!<br>Butch!  
>We're Team Rocket, circling earth all day and night!<br>Surrender to us now, or you'll surely lose the fight!"

Then a Raticate popped out from in between them to join in the motto. "Raticate!" he cried.

"Wow, where have I heard that before?" Luna glared at them.

"What are you up to now, Team Rocket?" Professor Oak questioned them.

"What are we up to now?" Cassidy replied. "Why don't you take a look under the copter?"

They all listened to her answer and looked below the behemoth. There, a metal box carrier emerged with a large "R" in the front. Inside were countless pokeballs that belonged to various trainers. Taken aback by the situation, all three humans, including the two pokemon, gasped in horror.

"Those are countless trainers' pokeballs!" Tracey yelled. "You give those back right now!"

"Uh, let me think about that," Butch thought for a moment before speaking again. "What's the word I'm looking for? Oh yeah, NO!" he hollered through the speakers.

"Those are countless pokemon that belong to other trainers. If you don't give them back this instant, you'll surely suffer the consequences," Oak implored to them even though he knew the obvious answer.

"Sure thing 'mother', we'll give them back to you…after they're all empty!" Cassidy nagged back.

Feeling helpless, Luna wanted to help her friends out, but she knew that she wasn't the heroic type. Terrified, she took a step back to retreat, until an idea hit her. Thinking about her plan, she quickly thought of the words she needed to say until she was ready to put it into action.

"Hey Cassidy! Is it just me, or does that outfit make you look fat?" Luna teased the blonde haired woman. Insulted by the comment, Cassidy glared at the goth girl and barked back.

"What did you just say!" she howled.

"You heard me, that little schoolgirl outfit of yours makes you look like you gained a few pounds!" Luna offended her. Putting a furious face on, all Cassidy could do was just keep gritting her teeth at the girl.

"And you," she pointed to Cassidy's partner. "If I recall, you're name's Brad, isn't it?"

Angered by her question, "Brad" took the microphone and tried to scream in her face. Luna, knowing that he was going to do it, covered her ears and smiled.

"HEY, MY NAME'S BUTCH! DIDN"T YOU PAY ATTENTION TO THE MOTTO?" he roared at the top of his voice. Tracey, already confused, couldn't help but stare at them.

"What's Luna up to? All she's doing is making them angry!" he said worriedly.

"That's exactly the idea!" Gary answered to him. During his adventures, he knew of his experiences with Team Rocket. He knew that any member would be easily offended by any insult given to them. He knew that this would make their chances of succeeding fall. He knew this, because all Team Rocket members are cocky in their work and take their pride for granted. Now knowing what needs to be done, he ordered his pokemon to take them down.

"Electivire, use Thunder!" he yelled.

"ELEC!" the pokemon cried as he sent a strong current of electricity hurling toward the helicopter. It hit with succession, electrifying the entire aircraft and the two screaming thieves. Immediately, the box full of pokeballs and the copter itself fell toward the ground. Afterwards, a Scyther zoomed by and carried them to safety. Seeing this, Gary turned around and saw Tracey holding out his pokeball as his fellow pokemon descended and returned the balls.

"Thanks a lot, Scyther. Now you take a good rest," he said as his pokeball shot a red beam of light at the pokemon. Moments later, the bug-type disappeared in the light and was returned to the capsule.

Just then, the window shields broke open as the two grunts recovered from the blast. They swiftly emerged from the broken carrier and glared at them with bruises and scrapes all over their bodies.

"You insolent brats! How dare you destroy our only means of transportation?" Cassidy hollered. She then took out one of her own pokeballs.

"That's it, looks like it's time for Plan B!" she snarled as she hurled her capsule in front of her. "Go, Houndour!" A red and black devilish looking dog emerged from the pokeball and snarled at them, ready for battle.

"Hey, don't forget yours truly! Go, Hitmontop!" he exclaimed as he did the same thing. Then, a fighting type pokemon spinning like a top emerged from the ball's light and went into its battle stance. Luna, wanting to send them away for good, started speaking to her Vaporeon friend.

"Buddy, we need to take them both out. Let's work together on this one!" she told the water-type. Nodding his head, the Vaporeon went back into his battle position and let out a battle cry.

"Hey, you're gonna need us!" Gary ran beside Luna while his Electivire did the same to the eevelution. Smiling, Luna stared back at the thieves and readied herself for her first battle.

"Let's get this started; Houndour, use flamethrower!" Cassidy ordered.

"HOUND!" the female canine roared. Obeying her trainer's command, she unleashed a blast of fire hurtling towards the water type.

"Well, that was a little stupid," Luna smirked. She knew that a fire type has a total disadvantage towards a water type like a Vaporeon. Knowing that she would win this, she ordered her friend to counterattack it.

"Okay, use water gun!" Happily obeying that command, the Vaporeon sent a cold blast of water at the attacker. Afterwards, the two attacks connected, for they both had equal strength. However, since fire was weak towards water, the water gun got its edge and sent the fire back at the Houndour, and soon pushing it back closer to its trainer and down on the ground.

"Grr," Cassidy growled. "You'll pay for that! Houndour, get up and use thunder fang!"

Rapidly getting up, the Houndour infused her fangs with electricity and charged towards the water type. Cassidy, being the cocky girl she is, knew that water types were defenseless against electricity. Seeing this, Luna ordered her pokemon to get out of the way.

"Hound!" she cried as she ran towards the Vaporeon.

"Quick, dodge it!" she told the Vaporeon. Following her command, he swiftly dodged it, but the thunder fang made contact with its back.

"POR!" he screamed as jolts of electricity shocked the water type. Not only did the electricity hurt, the amount of force the Houndour was putting on its bite made it even worse. Slowly, he was losing his stamina due to the effects of electricity on a water type.

"Break free of its grip by using water gun!" she ordered again. Mustering all of its strength, he unleashed another strong blast of water at the Houndour's face. The pokemon screamed and unwillingly let go of her adversary. Yet again, she was pushed back to its starting point.

"You insolent brat! Houndour, use thunder fang once more!' she ordered her pokemon. The pokemon obeyed and charged at the water type again with the electrified fangs.

"We're not falling for that again, use acid armor to dodge it!" Luna ordered again. The Vaporeon braced itself and waited until the fire type was at a close rang. Once she was close, the pokemon dissolved like water and dodged the attack completely.

"Great, now use quick attack!" the girl yelled. The pokemon responded by attacking the Houndour with a swift tackle.

"HOU!" she grunted as the attack hit it in the stomach.

Meanwhile, Gary's Electivire was busy battling against Butch's Hitmontop. Butch appeared to have a sweat drop fall down his forehead, since his pokemon was losing against the electric-type.

"Now Hitmontop, use rolling kick!" he ordered the fighting type. The pokemon instantly let out a battle cry and spun towards the opponent. Thinking quick, Gary told his pokemon the next move.

"Quick Electivire! Block him with you arms!" he hollered. Answering to its trainer's command, the yellow and black giant crossed his arms and blocked the continuing implosion of kicks. Soon afterwards, the Hitmontop backed off and stopped spinning.

"Agh! Use rapid spin!" he ordered again. The fighting type spun yet again towards his opponent, only this time, he spun faster than last time. He was like a draedal that was first activated on the streets. Gary, seeing this as an opportunity to counterattack, smirked.

"What are you smiling about?" the Rocket grunt questioned with anger in his voice.

"This. Electivire, grab him!" he commanded. Without delay, Electivire grabbed the fighting type on his chest, making him stop the spinning. Shocked by the interception, the Hitmontop could only stare at the giant with fear.

"Now use discharge!" Gary commanded again. At once, the Electivire unleashed a blue shock of electricity from its body and shocked the Hitmontop in his grip.

"HITMONTOP" he cried as the electricity coursed throughout its body. Afterwards, the electric type let go of its opponent and let it hurl back to its trainer. Taken aback, Butch tried to dodge his incoming pokemon, but instead ended up being pushed back from the force.

At the same time, Cassidy and her Houndour were losing the battle. The fire type was breathing hard out of exhaustion. Frustrated, the woman was about to order another attack, but was beaten by Luna's swift thinking.

"Now, use water gun!" Luna ordered. The Vaporeon obeyed and used its attack once more, but instead of a water gun, a stronger volume of water shot out of its mouth and made contact with the Houndour. The force was so strong that it not only hurt the canine, but it also sent it hurtling towards back to Cassidy like what happened to Butch.

"Hey, that wasn't a water gun," Luna realized.

"Whoa, Vaporeon just learned Hydro Pump!" Gary commented with amazement.

"Cool! And what good timing! We were just about to finish this little problem!" Luna grinned at the defeated thieves.

"Let's finish this, Luna!" Gary said with a fist by his chest. Agreeing, Luna looked back at the perpetrators and had the Vaporeon unleash its most devastating attack, Gary's Electivire did the same thing.

"Okay, now let's wrap this up with hydro pump!" the novice trainer ordered the Vaporeon.

"Electivire, send them flying with a thunder!" Gary seconded to his pokemon.

At the same time, the Vaporeon let out a strong water blast from his mouth while Gary's Electivire unleashed blast of electricity at them. Both attacks hit them at the same time, making them scream and resulting in an explosion to end the battle.

"Well, that didn't go very well," Butch grumbled.

"Ah! I can't believe that twerpette called me fat! Butch, please be honest with me; am I fat!" she grabbed onto the man's shirt and shook him like a madwoman.

"Get your hands off me! You're making me dizzy!" he pleaded.

"What's the point, we're spinning anyway!" she retorted.

"Oh, right," he now noticed. Both sighed before saying what all Team Rocket members say before blasting off.

"We're blasting off again," the both said with boredom. And they flew on through the sky until a small star twinkled.

"Raticate!" cried the giant brown rat.

Soon after the battle, all four people were standing in Oak's laboratory talking about today's recent events. Gary and Tracey were looking at Luna with a smile while Professor Oak was busy talking to the teen about her battle.

"Luna, even though you come from another dimension, you have shown us all courage, strategic thinking, concern for others' safety and determination. All of which are the true makings of a pokemon trainer," the professor acknowledged her.

"Thanks, actually, I was kind of nervous when I was battling against them. To tell you the truth, I didn't really think I had it in me," she admitted.

"Well, you do. Which is why all three of us agreed that you should go out on a pokemon journey," Professor Oak inquired.

"What? Me? Go on a pokemon journey?" Luna said.

"It's your decision, Luna. We're not holding you back," Gary spoke up.

Luna was shocked at the professor's statement. She couldn't believe it; her, go out on a pokemon journey? Go out and see the world, see so many different pokemon, battle various trainers? Earn gym badges and train to be a pokemon master? And most of all; make friends with other people and pokemon? Luna was having a happy moment. In fact, she could distinctly remember what she told her mother about what she wanted to grow up to be when she was only a three year old.

"Luna," Mrs. Whykurt called to her young daughter. "What do you want to be when you grow up?"

Luna, being a fan of pokemon at that age, already knew what she was going to say. She originally planned to become a veterinarian, but she didn't want to end up hurting an animal, much less kill it.

"Mommy," she said calmly with a childish voice in her tone. "I want to become a pokemon master!" Confused with this, her mother spoke to her again. Holding back her temper, she spoke to her daughter in the nicest tone she could make.

"Now Luna, you know that there's no such thing as pokemon," she smiled with a slight naggy tone.

"No mommy, there is such thing as pokemon. It's because you don't believe that they're real," she told her mother with the childish imagination she had.

"Now honey, let's be rational with this," she sighed with a louder tone in her voice.

"Mommy, don't stop me. You'll see, I'm going to become a pokemon master!" with that said, Mrs. Whykurt couldn't stop her daughter anymore.

Back to reality, Luna gave her decision some thought before she knew what to say. She then spoke back to Professor Oak with dignity and confidence.

"Well, considering that this is an honor, I'm not backing off from this opportunity. Especially when it's something as big as this!" Luna happily agreed.

Cheering, Tracey slid his fist toward his shoulder since he knew that she would say yes.

"All right, I knew she would say yes!" he bragged in Gary's ear. "You owe me 20 pokedollars." Regretting about making a bet with Tracey, Gary took out his brown leather wallet and handed him one green 20 pokedollar bill.

"Okay then Luna, follow me," Oak told the girl. The professor led the teen to another part of the lab and showed her three pokeballs.

"Each of these three pokeballs holds one pokemon. One of which of your choosing will become your first partner for the journey. There are three pokemon to choose from: Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle, so choose wisely," he requested.

Luna started looking at the pokeballs and set her mind to work. She couldn't decide whether to get the fiery Charmander, the sweet-smelling Bulbasaur, or the ultra-cute Squirtle. The girl kept on deciding for the next five minutes while the two boys have made another bet on whether she'll choose a pokemon there or not. Gary bet that she wouldn't while Tracey bet that she would choose Squirtle since she has an admiration for water pokemon.

In a far corner sat the Vaporeon that helped Luna earlier. He was back at its initial mood, because he knew that he would not join her on the journey. The pokemon knew the rules; the first pokemon a trainer needs to choose must be one of the three starter pokemon in the region. With a look of sadness, he turned away, but he remained there so that he could hear the result. Finally, Luna spoke to the professor and told him her decision.

"Professor Oak, I hope this doesn't offend you or anything, but I don't want to choose one of these pokemon as my starter," she said nicely.

"Huh?" the professor uttered with misunderstanding.

"Yes!" Gary jumped with happiness. Tracey on the other hand had a look of defeat and pulled his 20 pokedollars and gave the victorious boy the money.

"But Luna, you know the rules. Every trainer needs to start off with one of the three starter pokemon," he argued with no anger in his attitude.

"I know," she replied. "But, for the past day, you've already seen that I have made a bond with another pokemon. It would be a disappointment if it didn't come with me on my journey," she reasoned. She then walked over to the vaporeon in the corner and pats its frilled head.

"Hey buddy, how about you be the one to come with me on this journey?" Luna asked the Vaporeon. Delighted to hear this, he smiled and jumped onto his new trainer. Happily, he licked her cheek while Luna was laughing with achievement.

"Hey, come on! That tickles! Haha, stop it!" she pleaded. The Vaporeon then stopped and allowed the girl to breathe.

"Luna, like I said earlier, you need to start with a starter pokemon on your journey," Professor Oak reminded Luna as he walked up to her. Luna, now a little disappointed, had a look of defeat on her face.

"However," the professor said which made Luna widen her eyes. "Considering that you have already made a bond with this Vaporeon, I guess I can let this little situation slide."

"Really!" the novice trainer held her new partner and cheered. The pokemon on top of her did the same thing. "Oh, thank you professor!"

"Vapor! Vapor!" the Vaporeon gleefully cried.

"So Luna, do you have a name that you want to give to this Vaporeon?" Gary walked up to her and asked.

"Yeah, I've been giving it some thought and I think I came up with the perfect name," she replied. Luna turned to her new Vaporeon and uttered its name.

"I think I'm going to call you….." she paused for a moment.

"Aquos." Liking the name, the Vaporeon smiled and licked its trainer again.

"Well Luna, you better start packing. Cause tomorrow's a big day for you," Tracey told her.

"Oh yeah, I better get started!" she said as she got up and ran to her room.

"Oh, Professor, I hope you don't mind, but can I leave a couple stuff here? I really don't need them on this journey," she kindly asked the man.

"Sure thing, Luna. I'll make sure that they're in good shape once you return," he acknowledged.

"Thanks professor, you're the best!" With that said, she ran up to her room and started packing her needed supplies. Aquos, her newly named Vaporeon, followed close behind her and helped her out. Now that it had a name and a new friend, Aquos felt that he finally belonged in the world.

_Well, what do you think? It was kind of longer than I thought, but at least I finished it. I've got a few things to say:_

_1) I thought that was pretty stupid of me to put in that sappy part in the middle of the chapter; I didn't really know what to fill in there so that was the best I could think of._

_2) I was thinking of making the Team Rocket battle a separate chapter, but I decided that _

_I should just make it part of Chapter 3. Oh well, at least I finally finished it. _

_Up next, Chapter 4, the first leg of Luna's and Aquos' adventure._


	5. A Fresh Start

_**Auraninja:** Okay, it's time for Luna's Journey to commence. Finally, my fingers were starting to hurt from all that typing on Chapter 3. I hate school…I couldn't find enough time to continue with this story. _

_**Mewtwo: **Now am I going to appear in the story?_

_**Auraninja: **Not yet, Mewtwo. You don't appear until probably the 5th or 6th chapter. I don't know, but you'll appear soon enough._

_**Mewtwo: **Well, it better happen. Otherwise, me being here is just a waste of time. _

_**Auraninja: **Oh relax; plus, this is a good time to practice being patient. I wouldn't want all that meditating practice to go to waste now wouldn't I?_

_**Mewtwo: **Just get on with the story._

_**Auraninja: **Okay, okay! Sheesh, you could have said please. Oh yeah, I just realized the chapter number mistake I made. Sorry… _

Chapter 4

May 19, 2010

Route 1

"Well Aquos," Luna said as she and her Vaporeon partner walked down a dirt path a few miles from Pallet Town.

"Today's our first day on our voyage, so let's get our game faces on!" the girl cheered as she raised one fist up in the air.

"Por?" Aquos sounded with wonder on what she meant by "game faces". Luna saw his expression and calmed down.

"Never mind. It's kind of hard to explain," Luna answered.

"_I can't believe that just a few days ago, I was just a regular school girl who wanted to start a new life away from home. Now that I'm here, I'm finally fulfilling my dream of becoming a pokemon master,"_ she thought to herself. _"Plus, we've gotten a good start in our journey; leaving Pallet Town after breakfast a couple hours ago."_

Earlier that day…

"Now Luna, did you pack all of your needed supplies?" Professor Oak asked her as she stood at the front door.

"Yep, I've got a couple changes of clothes, some snack bars, a bottle of water, the five pokeballs you gave me, a medicinal pack, and the portable sleeping bag." Luna brought out a small cube-like capsule containing a sapphire colored sleeping bag. She left behind her cell phone and her DS supplies knowing that she wouldn't even use them on her journey.

"Okay, seems like you've got everything," Professor Oak said with delight.

"Wait Professor, there's something I want to give her before she leaves," Tracey told him. He reached into his shorts pocket and pulled out a cell phone-like GPS.

"Here, you should take this with you," he gave the item to Luna. Curious, the girl received the handheld tech and gave it a look. It appeared to have a blue and black color, similar to her DS, could open like a cell phone could, and it appeared to look like an advanced wristwatch.

"What's this thing?" Luna couldn't help but ask the sketcher.

"This is called a Pokegear. It's an item that trainers use when they go out on long journeys. Here," he got the gear from her and opened it with a movement of his thumb. In it, the device had the built of a cell phone but it had some applications that differed from one.

"It can show you the time, your location on the map, the usual cell phone feature since this is also a phone, and it even has a radio app," the red banded boy explained to her while pointing out all of the apps on the device.

Luna was directed to the phone contacts list and saw that Gary, Professor Oak, and Tracey himself have already put their phone numbers in. The girl then tried out the GPS app. On the screen, it showed a map of the world, and then it zoomed in to her location from the entire Kanto region to the area of Pallet Town, all the way to her position in Professor Oak's lab.

"Thanks Tracey, this will really come in handy," she thanked him.

"It sure will," he replied.

Moments later, Luna and Aquos were outside walking down the hill while saying their goodbyes to the guys. At that time, their journey had already started.

Present time

"All right Aquos," she looked to her right at her Vaporeon.

"Our first stop is Viridian City. Professor Oak told me that it's just about ten miles out of Pallet so I think we should be there by sundown at this walking rate," Luna explained to her partner.

"Plus, I think we'll see a bunch of pokemon on the way," she added.

Just then, a growling sounded from the two. Both trainer and pokemon stopped and looked at each other. Luna held her stomach and laughed.

"Well, it looks like both of us are hungry," she giggled.

Some time later, the duo sat down under a tree to have lunch. Protected by the sun's rays, they happily took out some food and started eating. Right afterwards, Luna was munching down onto her PB and J sandwich while Aquos was busy eating his chesto berry flavored pokemon food.

"Man, that hit the spot," Luna commented. Leaning back on the tree trunk, she closed her eyes and allowed her food to digest. Aquos did the same after he was done eating his lunch. But, there was one problem; Luna was still hungry.

"Whoops, looks like I'm not yet satisfied," she commented jokingly. The girl reached her hand to see if she could find a bag of oran berries that Professor Oak had packed, but found nothing but her bottle of water and some granola bars.

"Huh, that's weird. I thought Professor Oak had packed some oran berries if I could recall correctly," she wondered as she searched through her bag.

While its trainer was searching through the pack for the berries, Aquos heard a sound coming from behind the tree. The Vaporeon quietly walked around the roots and peeked into the back of the tree. He expected to find some small pokemon eating the oran berries from the bag, but instead found a small Roselia picking one berry up from the bag and eating it.

"Por! Vapor!" he yelled at the childlike flower pokemon. Caught by surprise, the Roselia turned to its left and found an angry Vaporeon glaring down at it.

"Ros," it trembled with fear in its voice.

"Rosie! Rose! Rosie!" the humanoid flower pokemon got down on its knees and begged for mercy on Aquos.

"Vapor…." it growled in a threatening voice. This was a way of telling it to give the food back and get lost.

"Ros!" it whimpered until Aquos was about to hit it with an aurora beam.

"Stop it Aquos!" Luna ordered. Witnessing all the action, she emerged from the tree and knelt close to the frightened Roselia.

"Are you okay? Aw, you look so scared," she comforted the pokemon with both of her arms.

"Aquos that was no way to treat a guest; if you wanted to get the oran berries back, then you should have asked nicely," Luna lectured to her partner. Aquos calmed down and hung down his head in shame.

"You must be hungry, here, have an oran berry," the girl offered the berry to the grass type.

Seeing the blue berry, the Roselia took it from in between her fingers and started to eat it. It munched down every single bite it could get from the berry, while the trainer and pokemon watched it eat.

"So, where are your friends? Are there others around?" Luna kindly inquired the small pokemon. In response, the flower holder looked at its caretaker and shook its head in remorse.

"Wait, you mean, you're a loner?" she answered. The Roselia answered her question by nodding its three-horned head.

"Oh, that's sad. I wish there was something we could do," Luna pleaded to the Roselia. But then, a thought occurred to her. Since this was Luna's start of her journey, she thought about the fact that there were a lot of pokemon in the world waiting to be caught. Plus, there was the fact that Professor Oak handed five ready-to-use pokeballs before she left.

"I know! You can come with us!" she smiled as an imaginary light bulb lit up above her head. Aquos reacted by shaking its head and telling Luna to stop what she was doing.

"Vapor! Vapor! Vaporeon!" it cried in desperation.

"Oh Aquos! Don't be such a stick in the mud! After all, the more the merrier, right?" she asked her partner. Thinking about what she said, the pokemon backed down and agreed with a smile.

"Good, that's the attitude I want to see. Now," she turned to the flower pokemon. "Let's get this started!"

Moments later, both the Roselia and Aquos with Luna in the back were on opposites sides of a battlefield. The flower pokemon raised its tulip appendages up and looked fiercely at its opponent while Aquos held its ground and got into a fighting stance. Soon, the battle began.

"Okay, Aquos use quick attack!" Luna ordered. The pokemon instantly ran towards the challenger and delivered a fast tackle to the chest.

"Rose!" it cried as it fell backwards. Unfortunately, being a persistent opponent that it was, it quickly recovered and landed on its feet.

"Rosie," it cried in a fierce tone. The Roselia generated jade-tinted bubbles from all around its body and fired them at the Vaporeon.

"_Uh-oh, that's hidden power. I hope that isn't a move type that Aquos is vulnerable to,"_ she mentally told herself.

"Dodge them!" she ordered next. Aquos dodged each and every one of the bubbles with ease, making sure that none of them hits him. Then, the Roselia ceased its action and readied for another attack.

"All right, now use aurora beam!" Luna commanded her Vaporeon. At that instant, Aquos opened his mouth and let loose a rainbow colored beam of light towards the grass type. The pokemon tried to dodge it, but to no avail; it was hit square in the chest and was pushed back. Luna knew that even though the Roselia had the advantage because of type, her Aquos would win because it had the upper hand, especially with an ice type move like aurora beam. The Roselia got back up and put both of its arms straight out.

"ROSIE!" it cried at the top of its voice. Just then, jets of purplish sludge shot out of its pretty flowers.

"_Now it's using sludge bomb,"_ she thought again.

"Quick, push it back with hydro pump!" the Jack Skellington fan ordered. Swiftly reacting, Aquos opened his mouth and let out a strong geyser of water at the purple sludge. Once they made contact, they were at a standstill for a brief moment before the plume of water and the poisonous sludge were sent towards the attacker. Not quick to react, the Roselia was hit clean in the chest, again.

"Rose!" it choked as it was knocked down by Aquos' attack and its own. With little stamina left, it struggled to get up and prepared for its final move. Like a dancer, it spun around and started creating pink petals like a flowery tornado.

"_Crap! That's petal dance, one of a Roselia's strongest attacks!"_ she noticed. Even though Aquos was starting to get tired, she didn't give up and ordered Aquos to deliver the final blow.

"Now Aquos finish this battle with aurora beam!" she screamed at the top of her voice.

Listening to her command, the water type let out a shining beam of light and hit the flora pokemon, which prevented it from using its attack. The collision caused an explosion, and both the trainer and the pokemon stood their ground as smoke went through their direction. Once the smoke cleared, the Roselia lay on the ground defeated with the swirls in its eyes. Seeing this as her opportunity, Luna took out a pokeball from her bag and ran back to the field.

"Go Pokeball!" she yelled as she threw the ball from her palm.

The ball bounced on the pokemon and absorbed it into the capsule. It then landed with a thud and started shaking with the red light in the middle turning on then off simultaneously. Luna was all tensed up as she was anxiously waiting for the result. Aquos at the same time had a look of concern on its face. After a seemingly long minute that felt like three minutes, the pokeball made a ping sound and stopped shaking. Cheering, Luna picked up the pokeball and held it up in the air.

"Yes! I've caught…..a Roselia!" she cheered with excitement.

"Vapor!" Aquos seconded as he jumped in the air with her.

Luna the settled down and let out the Roselia from the holding device. Opening its eyes, it then looked up at its new trainer and smiled.

"Well, that was a good battle, wasn't it?" she asked the grass type.

"Rosie!" it cried while spinning a few times.

"How about you Aquos? Did that feel good?" she turned to the eeveelution.

"Por!" it answered to her.

"That's great. Now the next order of business; what should your name be?" Luna pondered for a moment. She sat down and started thinking about what she should call her first caught pokemon.

"_Since it has a small tunic in the front, it has to be a male. But I don't even know what to call a male pokemon that has flowers for arms," _she mentally whined.

"Wait, I got it!" she had a revelation. Both pokemon jumped at what she said.

"Okay, from now on, your name is Thorn. What do you think, you like it?" she told the grass type dancer. Jumping for joy, he cheered before hugging Luna tightly.

"I'll take that as a yes," she said as she was slowly losing her breath. Even though they weren't able to get to Viridian City today, at least Luna, with the help of Aquos, caught her first pokemon. She beamed at the fact that her little family just got bigger.

_Okay, I was supposed to have Mewtwo make his appearance in this chapter, but I decided that I should reserve the event for later. That way, it could be marked as a big event. So, hopefully, I wouldn't be turned into hunting game. *shudders* Anyway, next up, Chapter 4!_


	6. Adair

**Chapter 5**

_**Auraninja:**Eeks! I hate quarter finals! Sorry about the delay. I had to take some stupid finals during the past few days. But, at least they are done and I can get back to doing what I like to do; write until my fingers hurt._

_**Mewtwo:**Are you saying you'd rather write fictional stories from your head than study to become something much more?_

_**Auraninja:**Mewtwo, I do not plan on becoming a lawyer or anything like that. All I dream about is to work with the Nintendo Company on helping them make more video games. Either that, or become a top musician and go on a world tour._

_**Mewtwo:**I can use my psychic powers to make you study to be a lawyer. Or would you prefer being a foot doctor?_

_**Auraninja:**AH! Mewtwo, stop it! Can we just get to the story already?_

_**Mewtwo:***laughs* Just a little psychic humor._

_**Auraninja:**Well, don't do that again. Sheesh, I hate that!_

Chapter 5

May 20, 2010

Route 1

Luna and Aquos have been wandering down a path on their way to Viridian City. Both look tired and hungry since they ran out of food and had little rest along the way. Desperate with trying to find a shortcut, Luna pulled out her pokegear and checked their position on the GPS. What she saw instantly woke her up as if she was dunked into an ice tank.

"Aquos, snap out of it!" she hollered to her partner. Immediately, woken up from its "sleepwalk", the Vaporeon looked up to its trainer.

"Por?" he asked with his head perked to the side.

"We're almost there; it's just over that hill," she said as she pointed to the grassy mound in front of them.

"What do you say we have a little race to wake our bodies up?" the N.B.C. (Nightmare Before Christmas) fan asked her friend.

Nodding his head, he crouched down as if he were hunting prey and quickly sprinted toward the top. Unfortunately, he left his trainer behind.

"Hey! That's not fair!" Luna complained. "I didn't even say 'go' yet!" She then darted after the aquarian mammal and caught up to him within a matter of seconds.

"Cheater! You'll pay for leaving me behind!" she laughed as she started running up the hill. They both felt the pressure from the elevation weighing them down, which then contributed to their loss of stamina. Yet that did not stop them from reaching the top.

There was no winner to the race because both trainer and pokemon reached the finish at the same time. Luna was breathing hard, almost like her lungs were about to burst. She bent down and held onto her knees as she caught her breath. Aquos was in the same predicament, only it appeared that it was about to collapse. However, the feelings of fatigue and exhaustion disappeared as both looked north to see their destination.

Overhead, the young trainer could see numerous medium sized skyscrapers towering over some other smaller buildings, guessing that some of them are shops or restaurants. There was also a small park, which was a sure place for her and Aquos to take a breather. Smiling, Luna started walking down the hill with the blue skinned mammal following her.

Some time later, Luna and Aquos were dashing through the city like top athletes. Together, they passed a news stand, some couple that were on a date, and even some guys who were loading furniture into a leased apartment. They didn't mean to disturb the city's peace, but they really needed to get to their first and primary destination: the Viridian City Gym.

"_Yeesh, at least we didn't pass by Officer Jenny. I'd imagine that she'd have our heads for this,"_ Luna reflected from she and Aquos did a few minutes ago.

By the time they had rounded a building corner, Luna had stopped abruptly. Not noticing that his trainer had halted, the eeveelution collided into her leg, causing both of them to fall down. As a result, the girl landed hard on her rump while the pokemon suffered from a slight migraine.

"Ow! My butt!" Luna whined as she rubbed her back.

"Vapor," Aquos whimpered apologetically. He held his down low and looked at her with beady eyes.

"That's okay Aquos. Just remember to always pay attention to where you're going," she told her friend.

Looking up again, she focused back on the fact that they had finally arrived at the gym. Even though she had come from another dimension, this building kind of looked like a mini mansion. In front of her was a fountain with a set of steps on both sides. The gym had marble walls and pillars, a tangerine colored outer face, and an open concrete courtyard in the front. Luna thought that she was back at home going to a local library, but she had to concentrate on the fact that she was here to get her first badge.

"Well Aquos, this is it. Today, we're going to get our first badge. So let's show the leader here what we're made of!" Luna bellowed.

"Vaporeon!" the pokemon cheered along with her. He jumped a couple times before he stopped.

Luna, excited about getting her first badge, ran ahead up to the door at high speed. Aquos was tailing behind her, having the same intentions on getting his first professional win. Luna was laughing when she got close to the door, unfortunately, when she finally made it; her face was met with stiff maple wood. Aquos was a little smarter now, stopping right when she collided. The girl was dazed for a bit, until she regained her focus.

"Ow! That's twice today that I've collided!" she whined. She clenched her fists together and got back up. The young trainer grabbed onto the gold handles and tried to pull it open, but it stayed closed. She tried again, only this time, she used most of her strength to force it open. Sadly, it didn't budge.

"What's the big idea? The gym can't be closed at this time. I've just arrived here!" Luna complained yet again. Frustrated, she was about to kick down the door until she caught sight of a note by the corridor. The girl quickly ripped it out from the nail and began to read it.

_Dear visitor,_

_We are sorry to inform you that the leader of the gym has quit from his duties for unknown reasons. Currently, we are doing our best to find a suitable new candidate to take the place as the new Viridian City Gym Leader. So for now, the gym has no leader and is unavailable for any trainer battles. Again, we apologize for the inconvenience._

_Sincerely,_

_The Indigo Plateau Elite_

Luna didn't make any sudden movements after she had read the note. Aquos stared up into her eyes and noticed that something drastic was about to happen. Afraid of what she's going to do, he tensed up and closed his eyes.

"What! The Gym Leader has quit!" Luna hollered at the top of her voice. "I can't believe this! What stupid reason does he have on quitting on his job?"

Sighing with aggravation, Luna counted to ten and quieted down. However, she still wanted to find the former leader and strangle him in his sleep.

"Fine then, it looks like we'll have to come back later," the novice trainer muttered.

"Come on Aquos," she turned around and started walking back. "Let's go." Aquos got up from his sitting position and followed the upset young woman.

At the park

Luna was walking down a concrete path with her arms crossed. She was contemplating about the fact that there was no gym leader there and no badge to earn. On and on, she walked with Aquos by her side to keep her company.

"Well this sucks," Luna said as she strolled by a stone fountain. "I came here to earn my first badge and my little goal ends up backfiring," she shrugged her shoulders. Aquos looked down in disappointment as well since he won't have a chance to have a good battle today.

"Fine then, looks like we'll have to come back later. But I swear, if these guys haven't chosen a candidate by the time we get back from getting the other badges, I'm going to strangle each and every one of them!" she yelled in a threatening tone. This scared the water type which made him take a few steps away from her. Just then, someone walked up behind the duo and called to them.

"Hey, you there! The one with the skirt!" a girl called behind the trainer.

Luna turned around with suspicion and got a good look at her caller. The girl that called her had green colored hair, orange goggles on her forehead, and green eyes. She was distinctly wearing purple and white jump shorts, brown go-go boots, and a black and red undershirt. But the most distinct feature about this girl was that she looked to be older than Luna, probably by a few years.

"You talking to me?" Luna asked as she put her right hand on her hip.

"Yeah I'm talkin' to you. Listen up girl; I haven't had a pokemon battle for a really long time ever since I arrived here. Plus, right now, I'm getting a little antsy," the emerald eyed girl told her.

"What's your point?" Luna asked coolly while trying to stay calm.

"So I'm challenging you to a battle!" the girl proclaimed as she pointed at her with a twinkle in her eyes. "And since you look like a novice trainer, I bet this one is an easy win for me."

"Oh really," the black haired young lady laughed. "I may be new to these parts, but I surely never back down from a battle." After saying that, the challenger unclipped a pokeball from her belt.

"All right! That's the answer I want to hear," the lady said as she pressed the button on the ball to enlarge it.

"Then let's get this underway. Go Marowak!" she shouted. As soon as the capsule opened in the air, a small dinosaur with a bone encasing head appeared.

"Maro!" he cried as he did some flips in the air before landing on the stony path. He then caught his bony club on his left hand after he had landed nimbly.

"Humph, showoff," Luna nagged. Aquos looked up at his trainer with an expression that told her that he was begging to be in the battle.

"Aquos, you want to go for it?" she asked her partner.

"Vapor!" he nodded. He then hopped in front of her and spread his legs into his battle stance.

Both girls had a look of determination as each one got ready for the in-park battle. Both have not been able to battle for a while, so they knew that this would be a good one.

"Marowak, use earth power!" the girl ordered.

Instantly, the ground type slammed his bone club and shook the ground. The force was so strong, it made the red path break in two. With the crack quickly approaching its target, Luna quickly made her move.

"Use quick attack to jump!" Luna hollered.

Once the crack was mere inches from the pokemon's front paws, Aquos used his speed and jumped high into the air, avoiding the mini earthquake below him.

"What?" the opponent said with surprise. The Marowak looked up as well, shocked to see that his adversary had dodged the move.

"Okay, use quick attack again!" the novice trainer ordered. In response to her decision, Aquos swiftly sped down to his opponent and hit him squarely in the chest.

"Maro!" he screamed as he was pushed backwards.

"_A direct attack, huh? Might as well counter it,"_ the brown vest girl thought.

"Marowak, use blizzard!" the new girl commanded. The ground type quickly got back in his game and opened his mouth at the Vaporeon. At that time, a powerful snowstorm buffeted the finned pokemon, knocking it down to the ground. Aquos was having some difficulty with withstanding the move since he was up against the cold blasts of air.

"Heheh," the challenger bragged.

"Aquos, you got to hang tough!" Luna hollered. Right afterwards, the Marowak stopped his attack and jumped back to his starting position. With confidence in his expression, he simultaneously flipped his bone club in the air before he caught it again.

"Quick Marowak, hit it with a thunderpunch while it's still dazed!" the young woman ordered again. The Marowak charged after the stunned Vaporeon and infused electric power into his free right fist. Aquos was just recovering from the recent blizzard attack while its opponent quickly approached the unsuspecting pokemon.

"Aquos, watch out!" the novice trainer hollered to her weakened pokemon. Opening his eyes, the eeveelution saw that the Marowak was about to hit him with a thunderpunch. Seeing this, Aquos sidestepped to the left and dodged out of harm's way.

"Darn it!" the girl with goggles complained.

"All right, Aquos hit him with a hydro pump!" Luna ordered afterwards. Immediately, the water pokemon unleashed a powerful jet of water from his mouth and hit its target.

"Mar!" he cried as the sheer force of the blast stunned his entire body. The ground type was pushed back to his side of the field, all drenched and weakened by the attack.

"Grr, good move," the opponent said with an angry expression. Then, she continued to speak again with a smirk. "But not good enough. Marowak, use earth power again!"

The pokemon obeyed his trainer's command and slammed his bone club into the ground, creating yet another earthen fault. As soon as Aquos landed nimbly on the stone path, the fault went under his paws and shook the earth, causing the water type to lose his balance.

"Uh oh," Luna gasped as her partner was damaged from the mini quake.

"Now, let's try this again. Marowak, thunderpunch!" she commanded.

"Marowak!" he cried with determination. With the opportunity given to him, the Marowak infused his fists with electricity yet again and charged after the distracted Vaporeon. Thanks to his trainer's quick thinking, the pokemon was able to get a clean hit into the opponents open side.

"Vapor!" Aquos screamed as it was knocked back to the ground. Luna gasped as she saw the Marowak make the devastating move on her partner. Growling, she clenched her fists and told her Vaporeon to get back up.

"Get up, Aquos! It's not over yet!" she commanded. Struggling on his feet, the Vaporeon slowly opened his eyes and diverted his attention back onto his attacker.

"Oh yes it is," the vested girl nagged. "Marowak, finish him off with a skull bash!"

Agreeing to his trainer's order, the ground type charged towards his target head on. Like a raging bull, he charged towards the Vaporeon as if he were in a Spanish bull match.

"Maro!" he cried as he darted toward the weakened pokemon. Just as soon as it was a foot away from his target and victory itself, Aquos opened his eyes and made eye contact.

"Huh?" the challenger said with confusion.

Luna chuckled as she saw this as her opportunity to take the win. "Acid armor."

At that moment, when the brown dinosaur was about to make physical contact, Aquos dissolved into water and caused his opponent to slip right through him. While it thought of why his adversary did that, he failed to see that he was charging toward a tree trunk.

"Ma!" he grunted as he froze in his place before hitting the ground.

"Finish this battle with a hydro pump!" Luna commanded for the last time.

"Vapor!" Aquos cried as he released a jet of water at the now bewildered Marowak. The watery blast successfully hit the pokemon, drenching him with water and weakening him since he was a ground type.

"MARO!" the bone clubbed dinosaur screamed. Once Aquos had finished his attack, the water dripped down and revealed a now defeated Marowak.

"Wak," he whimpered weakly.

"Eeks! Oh no, Marowak!" the trainer wailed as she ran towards his side. In the meantime, Luna was cheering along with Aquos, since they had won their second match with flying colors.

"Yes, we did it!" Luna cheered as she jumped high from the ground. She had her fists up in the air as she did her little "victory dance".

"Vaporeon!" Aquos sang as he jumped as well.

"_Wow, I was right. This trainer is tough, even for a newbie,"_ the new girl thought as she held onto her soaked Marowak. Luna, not forgetting about her manners, stopped her cheering and walked on over to the defeated trainer. She extended out her right hand and smiled.

"That was a good battle. Even though you didn't win, at least we both had fun, right?" she asked her competitor after she returned the Marowak to his pokeball. The green haired girl looked down for a moment and grinned. She then shook Luna's hand and got up.

"We sure did, didn't we? Say, I didn't even ask for your name," she replied.

"My name's Luna. And this is my partner, Aquos," Luna told her then she opened her hand to her Vaporeon.

"Vapor," he responded to the new girl.

"Nice to meet you. The name's Adair and I'm from Ecruteak City," the lady with emerald eyes introduced herself.

"Ecruteak City? You mean you're from the Johto Region?" Luna wondered.

"Yep, I came here to earn all of the gym badges and compete in the Pokemon League," Adair explained with a finger pointed up.

"Really?" the other dimensional girl gasped. "Me too! I'm trying to get my first badge, but it turns out that the Viridian City Gym doesn't have a leader. So I'm unable to get the badge yet."

"What? There still doing that stupid election? Figures," the Johto denizen sighed.

"What do you mean?" Luna couldn't help but ask.

"Oh, nothing. I'll explain it to you later," Adair replied.

"Oh, okay," the younger teen responded. Just then, her stomach made a distinct growling sound. She held on to her growling belly and looked up at her new friend with an embarrassed expression.

"Whoops, I got so caught up with our conversation that I didn't notice that it was lunchtime," Luna laughed. At that moment, Adair's stomach growled as well, only it was a little louder.

"Well, that makes two of us," she replied. Both laughed for a few moments before continuing with the conversation.

"Hey, you know what? Since we can't challenge the gym yet, how about we hang out for today?" Adair suggested.

"Cool, sounds like a good plan," Luna spoke up. "Know any good restaurants around here?"

"Sure do, I can even get reservations for the best one in town!" she acknowledged.

"Awesome! Well, what're we waiting for? Let's go!" Luna demanded. And with that said, the two girls and Aquos ran through the park and made a dash through the streets in order to get to the best restaurant in the area.

The Noodle Rocket, Viridian City

Inside the pub like restaurant, everyone was enjoying some nice bowls of Ramen soup; or some tea if they didn't feel like eating. It was peaceful inside, except for the sounds that were coming from a pokemon and two trainers eating on the front bar.

"Man, this is good!" Luna said with her mouth full of noodles. She resumed her eating and continued to stuff her face.

"See, I told you this was the best restaurant in town," Adair seconded.

Aquos was to busy to make a sound because his mouth was full of the stringy pasta. He was unaffected by whether it was hot or cool, all he cared about was filling his stomach until he was satisfied. Because of the intense battle he had with Adair's Marowak, he needed to regain some of his strength. He could sleep later, right now, he just wanted to finish another bowl of soup.

"I should come back here sometime!" the novice trainer said as she finished her last bowl of pasta. Not long after that, Adair had finished hers and leaned back on her chair.

"Wow, that hit the spot," the Johto denizen commented as she signed her receipt to the clerk. She then gave him 50 pokedollars from her leather wallet for the meal. She then put her hands on her stomach and burped loudly.

"Ooh, excuse me," she apologized sarcastically.

"You're excused," Luna joked. "So what were going to tell me about the Gym Leader election?" Aquos ceased his eating and listened in on the new subject. Before they fell on the bowl, there were a few pieces of noodles dripping down his mouth which made him look like he had a noodle beard. He looked left to his trainer and focused on Adair with a curious expression.

"Oh right, that's a little hard to explain," Adair warned.

"Well, I've all the time in the world," the black haired girl crossed her hands behind her head and rested it.

"Okay then. Before I start explaining, do you know anything about an organization named Team Rocket?" the eighteen year old asked.

"Yeah, there were two grunts from the same organization that tried to steal the pokemon in Professor Oak's lab some time ago," Luna remembered.

"Okay, so I don't have to make this a really long explanation then. A few years ago, Giovanni, the big boss of Team Rocket, was attempting to try to take over the world by setting up headquarters around this region. First, there was one in Celadon City, where they made their base of operations under the game corner. Second, they kept Mr. Fuji as a hostage in order to steal some Cubone skulls in Lavender Town. Third, they robbed a family in Cerulean City and left them trying to get some new insurance for their house. Fourth, they tried to get the blueprints for a master ball from the Silph. Co. in Saffron City. Then, there was," she was then interrupted by Luna.

"I think I get the point," she said as she waved her hand for a few seconds. _"How could I forget about their stupid antics?"_

"Anyway, Team Rocket was dealt some major justice by some kid whom no one knows. Heck, he even beat Giovanni in a pokemon battle, twice!" Adair held two fingers up.

"Some years after that defeat, the organization went into hiding. There were some Rocket officials that attempted to announce to the world that Team Rocket had made a comeback, but like the last time, another kid stepped up to them and gave them what they really deserve. Even though they have been defeated both times, they still intend to take over the world," Adair stopped to allow the entire explanation to sink in to Luna's mind.

"Geez, I didn't think they'd sink that deep," Luna scratched her head.

"It gets even worse. There was something else about them successfully creating the strongest pokemon in the world," the older teen further explained.

At that statement, Aquos perked his ears up and widened his eyes. He knew what she was talking about when she said the words "strongest pokemon". The Vaporeon couldn't believe it; she was talking about a subject that was supposed to remain a secret. Yet, she somehow found out about it. However, Luna still doesn't know the truth about him, so he's safe, for now. He looked down in concern and hoped that the conversation would soon end.

"Strongest pokemon in the world? That sounds oddly familiar...oh well, it's probably nothing," Luna denied while rolling her eyes. Aquos heaved a sigh as he heard that Luna doesn't believe the story.

"Yep, I'm not sure if that's true or not. After they had created it, it broke loose and attempted to destroy its creators. Soon afterwards, it went into hiding in fear that Team Rocket would find it again and use it to their means. But hey, it's most likely not real," Adair concluded her story as she shrugged her shoulders.

"Wow, that'd make for a really good campfire story. Where did you get this info?" the younger adolescent questioned.

"Oh, I did some digging around. I was on some island; don't ask me where because I forgot what it was, and I stumbled onto an abandoned campsite in the middle of a jungle. I found some dude's old journal and I started reading it. After I had finished it, I thought that this had a tie in with the gym leader quitting in Viridian City and all of those crimes that Team Rocket was doing in Kanto. It was a pretty interesting story that guy had created. He probably went crazy on the island before he died," Adair guessed.

"Poor guy," the young girl brought out her pokegear from her skirt pocket and checked the time. In black numbering, it read 6:05.

"Whoa, is that the time? I think we better head on to the Pokemon Center before all the other rooms are filled up," Luna put her backpack on and started to head out the door. Aquos leapt down from the stool and followed her out.

"Hey, wait for me!" Adair cried as she got her bag and went after the duo.

Viridian City Pokemon Center, Room 210

10:18 PM

The duo had already obtained room reservations from Nurse Joy a few hours ago. The two girls had chosen a small hotel like room with two beds, a TV, a circular desk, and a front porch overlooking the city. They had already unpacked for the night and were ready to get to bed. Adair had chosen the rightmost bed near the bathroom while Luna slept on the left side of her bed nearest to the porch since she liked to look at the city at night. Aquos decided to sleep with Luna; once he hopped by her right side, he curled up like a cat and closed his eyes.

Adair had just finished brushing her teeth and changing into her green pajamas. Luna had done the same and wore her black polka dot outfit. Before sleeping, Adair couldn't help but ask the young girl one last question before she was done for the day.

"Hey, Luna?" she asked.

"Hm," the girl stirred as she was awoken by her new friends calling. "Yeah, what is it?"

"I was wondering, since we're both pursuing the same goal of becoming pokemon masters, if I could, well, come with you on your journey," Adair explained.

Luna thought for a moment since she was almost half-asleep. Nevertheless, she was able to answer her question with a small smile.

"Really? You really want to come with us?" Luna questioned.

"Well, if you want to travel alone, then that's fine with me," the older girl shrugged with no offense.

"No, no. I mean, we were kind of getting a little lonely and I love meeting new friends along the way. Plus, I think Aquos would love to have another traveling companion," the novice trainer turned to her sleeping partner.

"So, I can come with you guys?" Adair asked again.

"Sure! Like I always say, the more the merrier," Luna acknowledged with a fist extended out front.

"Sweet, so we leave first thing tomorrow?" Adair continued.

"Yep!" she replied. Luna sat still for a minute because the noise they were making stirred Aquos in his sleep. The Vaporeon's eyes were half open as he stretched his entire blue body before curling up back to sleep. After that, Luna lowered her excited tone and repeated what she said.

"I mean, yep," she whispered. "Onward to Viridian Forest!"

With that said, both girls lay down on their beds and went fast asleep. Knowing that they need to leave the Pokemon Center, and get some bug spray, they regained their stamina and prepared for the journey ahead.

_Well, looks like Luna has made another friend. Hey, I just promised Mewtwo that he would show up in about five or six chapters. Since my loyalty is at an all-time high, I'll make sure I keep it. Plus, if he found out that I forgot to…um, let's just say that I'll have to read up on books about taking care of calluses and bleeding nails. God, I hate it when he threatens me like that! Oh well, at least I still respect his actions. After all, I am one of his biggest fans. Okay then, Chapter 6 is on the way!_


	7. Lost in the Woods

**Chapter 6**

_**Auraninja**: Sorry it took so long to write this chapter. I know I've already said it in the author's note, but that was the reason why I couldn't write anymore chapters. I'm just angry that I've been blocked from writing fanficiton as well. So I was forced to write everything in a notebook, which took me a lot of time to do. _

_**Mewtwo: **I told you it was better to study rather than to waste your time with stories. Why didn't you obey their orders?_

_**Auraninja: **Well look who's talking! You're the one who never takes orders from anyone yet you're griping me about it?_

_**Mewtwo: **That was an entirely different reason!_

_**Auraninja: **Ooh…looks like I touched a nerve._

_**Mewtwo: **(eyes glowing blue and puts pressure on AJ's head)_

_**Auraninja: **O w ow ow! That hurts! Stop it! Okay fine, I'm sorry I annoyed you._

_**Mewtwo: **(sighs) Just get on with the story…_

_**Auraninja: **No need to get pushy, I was going to anyway._

May 21, 2010

Viridian Forest

"Luna, are you sure we're going the right way?" Adair asked impatiently.

"Of course we are," the younger trainer replied with confidence.

"This is just like The Wizard of Oz. All we have to do is follow the yellow brick road. Well, dirt road in this case."

Some hours ago, the trio had left Viridian City on their way to Pewter City. But first, they bought some food supplies and two bottles of bug spray. Luna thought of this travel route as a fun way of seeing a lot of pokemon so she was having fun. Adair on the other hand wasn't having the time of her life.

"Calm down girl, everything's going to be fine. As long as we don't run into any Beedrill, we'll be okay," she told herself.

During that time, Aquos was trying to keep up with his trainer, who was trying to make a run through the forest to pick up the pace. With every breath he took, the Vaporeon increased his speed to stay with her.

"Come on you guys! If this path will get us to Pewter City, then we might as well hurry up!" Luna waved about 10 yards down the path.

"Well, she's hyper today," the Johto denizen commented as she continued to walk.

"Vapor," Aquos agreed close by.

As the trio rounded a path, three shadowy figures appeared in the underbrush. Once they had disappeard, the path that turned to the left dissipated and transformed into the original route to the right. Threes on the fake route reappeared as if it were an illusion. With their business done for the moment, the three stalkers slunk back into the darkness of the trees.

Some time later…

"Luna, I think we're lost," Adair complained. The leading girl stopped walking at that statement and turned around.

"How can we be lost? Like I said before; all we have to do is follow the yellow brick road," Luna reminded as she backtracked down the road.

Just then, a small Weedle crawled out of the bushes to cross the path. Not noticing what was comingup, Luna turned around to continue walking, but failed to see the bug type in front of her. As a result, Luna lost her balance and fell forward.

"Wha!" she shrieked as she fell on her face. The Weedle she tripped over was crushed under her black go-go boots.

"Luna!" Adair hollered as she ran up to the fallen trainer.

"Are you okay?"

The novice got up from her stomach and got back on her feet. She brushed off some dirt from her Jack Skellington shirt and denim skirt with a few flicks of her wrist before responding.

"I'm okay. But what about htat speed bump I tripped over?"

At that moment, all three travelers looked down on the ground and saw a Weedle pulling its face out of a hole. With a small pop, it shook its head and looked back at them with watery eyes.

"Whee…" he whined as he was about to burst into tears.

"Ack!" the older one jumped as she backed away slowly.

"Oh crap, this can't be good," Luna groaned.

"WEEDLE!" the horned caterpillar wailed at the top of his voice.

The cry was so loud, every single pokemon in the area heard the shriek of the tiny pokemon. Suddenly, a swarm of Beedrill flew out of some nearby trees and hovered in front of the heroes. There were about 20-30 angry wasp-like pokemon hovering which made them really nervous. So nervous, they were shaking like leaves.

"Don't worry Luna," Adair said with a quavering tone.

"I know how to get us out of this…"

"Really? What's the plan?" she replied while staring into the angry red eyes.

The 18 year old paused for a moment. Knowing that Luna got an idea what the plan was, she put in into action.

"RUN!" Adair hollered as she dashed up the road.

Moments later, Luna and Aquos followed after her, along with the swarm that was tailgating them.

"Why didn't you watch where you were going!" the elder girl nagged to her. Right afterwards, she screamed as a Beedrill's stingers almost hit her.

"I'm sorry! I didn't even see that Weedle on the road!" Luna said as she gained speed until she was ahead of the others by a few yards.

Aquos was tailing behind Adair, who was busy on trying not to make any contact with those stingers. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a Beedrill about to divebomb at the unsuspecting trainer. Quickly reacting, he launched a Hydro Pump and sent it flying into the tree line.

"Bee!" it cried as it crashed into the tree branches.

"Thanks Aquos!" the trainer gratified the pokemon. She then continued her running while he caught back up to his trainer.

"Guys look! It's a lake!" Luna shouted as she pointed to her right.

The duo looked in that direction and saw a body of water covered by the tree line. It was a little hard to see, but it was surely a fresh clean lake.

"Quic, make a run for it!" the ground type expert yelled.

Immediately, all three ran east and sprinted through the trees. They made an effort not to accidentally crash into a trunk, for the Beedrill were merely just a few feet behind them. Finally, after endless minutes of running and pushing branches out of the way, the trio had made it out of that portion of the forest and set their eyes on the still pristine water.

Unexpectedly, a Beedrill zipped through the leaves and made its way towards its target. With a loud "poip", its lances made full contact with Adair's lower back.

"Agh!" she screamed as she fell into the lake. Seeing this, Luna and Aquos jumped into the water and hid beneath the surface. Above their heads, the bug types zoomed over the lake like mini jets. One by one, they zipped through the watery mirror and disappeared into the trees, never to be seen again. As soon as the last one made its way back into the woods, both trainers surfaced from the water, gasping for air. Aquos, being the water type that he is, didn't need to as he slowly brought his head up.

"Phew!" the young girl sighed with relief.

"That was a close one!"

"A close one? No, barely even that! We barely escaped!" the green eyed girl screamed as she turned her head back and lifted her shirt up.

Under the covers, Luna and Aquos could clearly see a giant red bump the size of a ping pong ball protruding from her back.

"Ew, that's the biggest bee sting I've ever seen," she grimaced.

Aquos swam back a few inches and put his head in the water to hide his expression.

"See that? Oh I'm sure you're seeing it! I bet you didn't even know I was allergic to Beedrill stings!" Adair bellowed with pupiless eyes. Right after that, she started scratching that very spot.

"Well sorry, I didn't know!" Luna said shaking with a sweat drop slowly drooping from her forehead. Nearby, Aquos was trying to block out the argument by remaining underwater.

"I sure hope you brought some ointment with you!" Adair hollered.

Afterwards, both trainers climbed out to shore and started drying up.

"Huh?" the girl stopped frying herself as she looked down her friend's shirt.

"Luna, weren't you wearing a necklace a while back?"

"Yeah, why do you ask?" the younger trainer asked. She had finished squeezing water from the side of her black shirt.

"Because I don't see it around your neck anymore," Adair continued.

"What? That's bogus, I would never let any of my stuff get lost. Besides, my necklace is in the one place it should be," she replied in a braggy tone.

She then lifted one finger up and touched the lower base of her neck, the place where the heart was. Seconds later, she realized that her pendant nor the feel of the chain was not around her neck. Reacting, she searched all over her body then around the lakeside in search of her possession.

"Oh no, it's gone! Ah!" Luna shrieked as she ran around in circles.

While that was happening, Aquos popped his head out of the water to see why his companion was screaming. Already irritated by the noise, he slunk back into the water to wait it out.

One mile from the heroes' position…

While Adair was busy tending to her allergic, Luna freaking out about her missing necklace, and Aquos who was trying to calm her down, the two culprits responsible for their troubles were hiding in the underbrush. The two suspects, a Dusclops and a Haunter were laughing their heads off about tricking the group into the Beedrill's nest.

"Dusclops, clops, clops!" the one-eyed ghost laughed as he banged his head against a tree trunk.

"Hau, hau, haunter!" the purple phantom followed as he floated in circles before hitting a tree.

"Dusclops, Dusclops!" the bigger one gloated at his fallen companion.

They were having the time of their lives. It had been ages since a group of trainers had wandered into their midst. Being impish ghosts, their goal was to bring mischief among humans that become lost in the woods. To them, there was a routine: first, Dusclops will cast a confuse ray on the trainer or trainers making them think they're headed down the right path they're really going the wrong way. Second, Haunter will do his job when the trainers are asleep. Both ghosts loved their plan; however, all but one glowered at them.

"Mag!" a voice sounded from behind them.

Both ghosts ceased their laughing and turned to see their other companion glaring down at them. Mismagius may the oldest in the group, but Dusclops still portrays himself as their leader. To him, the female ghost was just another pushover because she always lectures them whenever they mess around with strangers.

"Mismagius, mismagius!" the witch ghost retorted as she told them countless times about leaving trainers alone.

"Mismag, mismag," she continued as she lifted both of her leathery tendrils up.

"Mismagius!" she shouted when she told them that she was sick of their antics.

"Dusclops?" the grey one questioned as he told her that she wants to quit the group.

"Magius!" she repled as she said she wants to leave and apologize to the humans.

At that statement, the Haunter that watched from the sidelines dashed in front of the ghost and knocked her down. The force was so hard; her face was slammed into the ground like a heavy object had been pushed. Furious, she quickly recovered and was about to hurl a shadow ball at him. Unfortunately, while she was at the process of exerting all of her dark energy into one attack, the witch was interrupted by another attack.

"Dusclops!" the cyclops cried as he punched the Mismagius with his transparent shadow punch.

"Magius!" the female phantom screamed as she was pushed back to the ground again. After the blow to the face, the Mismagius recovered from the attack and slowly got back up.

"Dus, Dusclops! Clops, clops, Dusclops!" the Dusclops retorted at the she-ghost. He was telling her to leave and never come back because of dishonoring the fact that all ghost types can never be friends with humans.

With that said, the Mismagius did not reply back and floated away from the group. Ignoring the memories she had of unwillingly torturing other trainers and thinking of that group as her family, she sauntered into the darkness of the forest. The only words she heard before leaving the area was the Haunter saying that she was a disgrace to all ghost types. She just kept floating away, not turning back.

Minutes later, while she was trying to look for the trainers, the Mismagius happened to be passing through the trees. Since she was a ghost type, the obstacles in front of her were easily avoidable. Then, out of the blue, something sparkled in the bushes to her right. Curious to find out what it was, the ghostess hovered in that very direction. There, hiding in the brush, was a silver heart necklace with bat wings and a blue jewel in the center. Knowing that this belonged to one of the girls, she used her psychic move to pick it up. Then, she turned to the lake; the first place she would look for them.

That night

8:47 PM

Campsite by the lake…

"Oh man, this is bad. What am I going to do?" Luna hyperventilated while she walked back and forth in front of the campfire.

"Okay, relax. The necklace isn't lost, just misplaced. Yeah, that's right. Let's go with that," the girl assumed.

Then, she had second thoughts. "Misplaced…in the middle of a gigantic forest!"

"Girl, just chill. Besides, what's the deal with this necklace of yours? You can just buy another one the next time we get to a store," Adair reasoned while rubbing some ointment down her back.

"No you don't get it," the frantic girl turned around and replied.

"That necklace is a symbol that represents me not being girly! If I don't have it around my neck," she stopped when she realized that only nonsense came out of her lips.

"You know what? Truth be told, my grandfather gave it to me for my thirteenth birthday and he told me to never take it off," Luna looked down in shame.

"Plus, it really shows my personality."

Adair could only stare at her with a conspicuous expression. After all she heard, the 18 year old was still confused at that explanation. So, she laughed and fell down onto her sleeping bag.

"Are you kidding me? That entire explanation just for a simple necklace?" she then continued to laugh hysterically.

"Fine, believe what you want!" Luna snapped.

"I'm still going to look for it!"

Adair ceased her laughing and took some breaths before speaking with her. "Hey, no worries. It's too dark to see anything at this time. We'll just start looking in the morning."

Then, right when she said that, Aquos came up to the freaked out trainer and sat down beside her. He looked up at Luna with a comforting smile.

"Vapor," he cooed as he rubbed his head by her leg.

"You're right. We'll look in the morning," she responded confidently.

"Good, now it you don't mind," the other girl said as she snuggled under the covers of her brown sleeping bag. "I'm going to bed."

"Okay, good night," Luna said as her friend turned her back to her and fell asleep.

Luna looked down at her partner and stared into his eyes. She smiled and told him what they were going to do while she slept.

"Come one, let's go for a walk," she whispered.

Lake Shore

Tonight was very beautiful, in Luna's opinion. The moon hung in the sky like a croissant that was ready to eat. All around them were small stars sparkling like tiny diamonds. On and on, they kept walking and admiring the sky, until something up ahead stopped them in their tracks. Right in front of them, floating in the air, was a Mismagius.

"Huh? What's a Mismagius doing here?" Luna wondered. Aquos knew she wasn't a threat because she didn't attack them at first sight nor did she have any ill expressions.

Then, using her psychic powers, the purple rag ghost revealed the lost necklace behind her back. Happy to see her lost possession, Luna extended her hand out and allowed the pendant to land on her palm.

"My necklace! How? Where?" she stammered as she clipped it around her neck. "Thanks for finding it for me."

"Mismagius," the ghost type cried as she nodded her head in response.

"I'm Luna and this is my partner Aquos," the girl greeted to the pokemon.

"Vaporeon!" Aquos said as he greeted hello.

"What are you doing out here all alone? You're not sleepy at all?" Luna asked her.

"Magius?" the phantom cocked her head at the word.

"Oh yeah, ghost types enjoy the night," she figured.

"No matter, since we're all up, let's go play! I could go for a game of 'Ninja'" the novice trainer said playfully.

Just then, a scream erupted in the night. It sounded as if someone were in pain or in terror of something. Turning around, Luna knew who it was and started running back along with Aquos, who was sprinting with her.

"That was Adair!" Luna yelled as she ran.

Close by, the Mismagius followed after them. Because of her duty from a while ago, she had totally forgotten about her former group's goal.

Back at the campsite…

This obviously wasn't Adair's day. First, she got stung by a Beedrill on the butt. Second, she was suffering from a minor cold. And finally, her friend Luna is making her live out her fear.

"Come on Adair!" Luna called through the wind. She then opened the airplane hatch to reveal the earth below. "It'll be fun!"

"But Luna! I'm afraid of heights!" she quivered as she tried to resist the hot guys that were trying to strap the parachute onto her.

"Oh don't be such a chicken! Besides, you gotta face that fear of yours one way or another!" she laughed. Afterwards, the daredevil girl fell backwards from the plane.

"I'll see you on the ground!" she barked as she fell to the terrain below.

"Okay kid! It's your turn!" one of the hot jocks pushed her off the plane with force. Adair tried to hang onto the doorway, but to not avail, she fell forward.

"No, no, no, no, AH!" she screamed.

She kept on screaming as she fell from the heavens.

Back in the real world, Haunter was enjoying his favorite snack; purely fresh picked nightmares. With his nightmare move, he kept absorbing her mental energy by the grey glow from his hands. Behind him was Dusclops looking at his friend with devious satisfaction. He was, after all, enjoying the girl squirming in her sleep. Seconds later, another human's voice called nearby.

"Thorn, use hidden power!" Luna commanded.

Dusclops turned and saw a teenager summoning a Roselia from a pokeball. As soon as he came out, Thorn created green balls around his body.

"Rosie!" he cried as he threw the balls at the two ghost types.

"Haunter!" the ectoplasmic specter screamed.

Thanks to Thorn's attack, his nightmare connection was broken and Adair calmed down in her sleep. The green balls then attacked Dusclops on all sides.

"Dusclops!" he grunted as he was pushed back from his position.

Unlike Haunter, who was apparently knocked out cold, Dusclops stood his ground and readied himself for battle.

"Well, well," Luna smirked," That answers the question."

Saying this, she now figured out that hidden power was a psychic type move.

As a response to the attack, Dusclops put his hands together and formed a ball of blue fire. Luna knew what it was, so she waited for the right moment to strike.

"Dusclops," he chanted as he fired the will-o-wisp at the flower dancer.

"Dodge it!" the trainer ordered.

Obeying his trainer's command, Thorn spun out of the way with ease. The blue fire then landed in the lake, which caused the water to vaporize it.

At that moment, the ghost type put his hands together again for another attack. This time, swirls of dark energy formed along with a haunting gust of sound.

"Clops!" the ogre roared as he fired his dark pulse at Thorn.

"Counter it with sludge bomb!" Luna retaliated.

Thorn put his flowers in front of him and readied himself for his attack.

"Rosie!" he cried as he spewed slimy purple liquid at the pulse.

The two attackers connected since they were both of equal strength. For a short amount of time, they stayed connected like a cord. The, an explosion erupted, creating smoke around the opponents. Aquos closed his eyes when the gust was at him while Luna raised one arum up to block her face.

"Crap, where'd he go?" she cursed at herself.

Suddenly, the Dusclops dashed through the smoke. His eye glowed with anger as he approached the unsuspecting Roselia.

"Dusclops!" he yelled as he was about to execute a shadow punch.

Out of nowhere, a shadow ball made contact with his left side. Pushed back, it cried in pain.

"Dus!" he said.

The smoke cleared and revealed the Mismagius hovering a few yards from the downed Cyclops.

"Mismagius!" she hollered.

"Whoa, you want to help too?" Luna asked the witch ghost.

"Magius" the pokemon nodded in response.

"Dusclops!" the opponent cried as he tried to attack her.

Seeing this, the Mismagius dodged out of the way and unleashed a thunder wave at him. Since no one can easily avoid this move, it easily made contact with him.

"Dusclops!" he screeched as scores of electricity coursed through his body.

As a counterattack, the pokemon fired another will-o-wisp at her. Nevertheless, she evaded the move. Dusclops was angered by this and charged at her to perform a shadow punch.

"Dusclops!"

"Stop him with psychic!" Luna commanded.

"Mismag!" the she ghost chanted with an echoic voice. Thanks to her attack, Dusclops was stopped dead in his tracks and was floating in the air.

"Dus? Dusclops, Dusclops, Dusclops!" he whined like a baby.

The ghost type was writhing in the air before he was reluctantly shoved at a tree trunk.

"Dus…" he groaned.

"He's almost down, use shadow ball!" Luna ordered with a smile.

"Mis…" she chanted for a few moments.

A violet blob of darkness formed in front of the ghost type and grew until it was the size of a basketball.

"Magius!" the blob of energy was sent towards the nearly defeated cyclops.

At that moment, it made contact with its target. A cloud of smoke was created as a result and surrounded the area. The area cleared after the attack and revealed a defeated Dusclops.

"Clops…" he whimpered with a swirl in the eye.

"Yeah!" Now that's how it's done!" Luna cheered.

"Vaporeon!" Aquos seconded with a happy face.

"Rosie! Rosie!" Thorn danced in circles.

After a bit of cheering, Luna walked up to the Mismagius. The phantom sensed her presence and turned around to face the human.

"Thanks for all the help. I don't know what else to say to you except for the fact that your battling skills are awesome. How can we ever repay you?" the 15 year old said to her.

Quickly thinking, the Mismagius drifted toward Luna's blue travel bag near the campfire. She then used psychic to unzip it and rummaged through the pack.

"Hmm? What are you looking for?" Luna asked.

When she was finished, the spirit revealed a pokeball by her head. Knowing what she wants, Luna smiled and took it.

"I get it, you want to come with us," the girl figured.

The ball floated towards her and she caught it in her hand.

"Okay, here goes!" she yelled as she threw the ball at the pokemon. With a smile, the ghiost type allowed the ball to make contact and absorbed her.

The ball then dropped to the ground with a small thud. It shook from left to right while the red light in the middle turned on then off. Finally, it made a "ping" sound and stopped shaking. Luna walked up to it and picked it up with her right hand.

"Welcome to the club…," she smiled over the cheers of Thorn and Aquos.

"Rowena."

_I FINALLY managed to type chapter 6. Whoo! Now that that's done, I can now proceed to post chapter 7. As promised, I will post both of these up early, just to make up for lost time. Stay tuned for the next chapter._


	8. Shadow

Chapter 7

_Okay guys, here's Chapter 7. Anyway, there's another character that'll be joining Luna's group. Yes, he's from another dimension and yes, this story has now become a crossover story. Which character you ask, you'll have to read the chapter to find out._

Somewhere up in space

One week earlier

All was quiet; the stars were glistening like glitter on an evening gown. The earth looked beautiful; the ocean looking as blue as ever, the clouds dancing over the land, all of which made it appear like a perfect vacation spot. Well, except for the fact that a giant spaceship was about to blow it up.

The ship had the appearance of a sports dome. It was in pretty bad shape considering that it had been up there for half a century. There were rusted areas around the ship along with some significant dents and scratches. But the feature that struck out the most was the cannon that was about to fire its deadly beam. Over at the exterior of the canon was a giant cybernetic lizard.

The creature had the manifestation of a deformed dinosaur. It had crimson colored leather skin, long elastic wires running down its neck, and gooey energy sacks on its sides. The creature also had blue lifeless eyes, those that belong to a robot of mass destruction.

With a roar, it prepared to fire down at the planet. The interior systems hummed as the creature was receiving all the power it needed. As soon as it was about to fire, it was immediately hit on both sides of its neck.

In retaliation, it fired balls of energy at them from its teeth-serrated jaws. Unfortunately, as powerful as its attacks were, its two opponents evaded them. All around, the glowing balls of light bounced around the blasts like pin balls. Being fast as they were, the creature could not make out their true forms.

Just then, both glowing forms struck it continuously on the neck line in an effort to take it down. Angered by this, the crimson dinosaur swung its head and hit one of its adversaries. Pushed back by the force, the attacker lost focus and was knocked out of his attack stance. Now that one of them was distracted, the biolizard could clearly see its opponent. He was about three feet tall, had red and white skates, and pointed quills with red highlights. He remained floating in space unconscious until he woke up with a jolt.

"Shadow, you okay?" yelled his other golden companion.

Beside him, his rival came floating towards him with a stern expression. Unlike him, this one was pure gold and had red and white sneakers.

"Fine, but what about the biolizard?" the ultimate life form responded.

They both looked at the bio-cannon and saw the creature readying for another attack. Once again, the ship's systems hummed and gave the lizard more fuel. Then, the dark hedgehog noticed something strange about the lizard; he saw that once the systems powered up, the orbs down its neck started glowing.

"Sonic, aim for its neck sacks! We have to stop the energy flow!" Shadow yelled.

Sonic nodded and replied back to him. "Got it!"

Both hedgehogs went into ball form and sped towards the cyborg. One by one, they broke the energy sacks and angered the dinosaur.

Right then, the cybernetic lizard released a poisonous liquid all around its body. Sonic and Shadow dodged them with ease and proceeded with breaking the sacks. With each hit the creature received, the energy sacks spilled out oozes of purple blood and oil. Consequently enough, the energy that it was receiving was going down as well. Slowly, the lights in the ARK were going out along with its generators.

Just when he was about to hit the last energy sack and kill the biolizard, more toxins were released from his body and blasted the blue hedgehog close to the earth's atmosphere. Furious, Shadow gathered all of his strength and zoomed towards the creature's weak spot. As he continued, a geyser of the poison liquid spewed from one of the pores on its back and hit the hedgehog. The lizard, appearing as if it were continuing its mission of world destruction, was trying to keep the final hedgehog from destroying it. Even thought the force was great, Shadow refused to give up. On the other hand, he was also getting weaker, since the liquid was also sapping his energy.

"No, I refuse to give in to a robot like you!" he hollered in defiance. He then powered up again and sped back to the final energy sack.

The deformed dinosaur released more liquid as obstacle-like bubbles in the air, but that did not stop the blazing hedgehog. He then let out a battle cry as he neared the pink colored tumor.

"I am Shadow the Hedgehog! The Ultimate Life Form!" he cried furiously.

In a split second, he broke through the sack and at the same time, broke through the lizard's neck. The lizard groaned and its entire body began glowing. The crimson color soon became orange while the cords and its eyes glowed green. This meant one thing to Shadow. Floating just about a hundred yards form the cannon, he crossed both of his arms and attempted to teleport himself to safety. Unfortunately, the lizard imploded on itself in a burst of flames and smoke. The afterburst shook throughout the area as if it was a star's end. Not surprisingly, Shadow was caught in the explosion.

"Augh!" he groaned as he fell out the smoke.

As he fell towards the planet below, his gold coloring had been reduced to his original black fur. It didn't take him very long to enter Earth's atmosphere. Like a falling meteor, he became surrounded in flames and rained down from space. Being the ultimate life form, he did not burn up.

Suddenly, right when he was about to fall through the first atmospheric layer, a swirling blue portal opened up out of nowhere. Shadow's form descended into the portal's depths and was never seen again. Above him, the image of the stars disappeared as the exit closed in on him.

Viridian Forest

Present Day

11:45 AM

Luna waked on through the forest with Aquos at her side. Today was a beautiful day; the sun was high up in the sky. There wasn't a single cloud in sight, and there was even an occasional gentle breeze that would blow from time to time. She leaned back, resting her head on her hands and sighed.

"Man, it's so gorgeous out here. I've got a feeling it's going to be a good day today," the trainer said. "Don't you agree, Aquos?"

The aquarian mammal looked up to his trainer and smiled. "Por!"

"That's good to hear. How about you, Adair?" Luna turned around and waked backwards.

Unlike Luna and Aquos, Adair wasn't having the time of her life. Still sleepy, she stretched her gloved arms and yawned.

"Speak for yourself," Adair groggily replied.

"Holy Arceus! You look like a waking zombie!" Luna obviously pointed out.

Adair indeed looked like a living corpse. The bottoms of her eyes were darker than the rest of her skin. Some parts of her green hair were all over the place and it looked like she was about to sleep at any minute.

"Ya think!" she retorted as she kept on waking down the dirt road.

"Well, someone's grumpy today," the younger trainer inquired. Luna stopped and put her hands on her hips and stared.

"Yeah, that's because I didn't sleep very well last night," Adair replied in a rude manner.

"Oh yeah, that's right," Luna mentally told herself.

She remembered last night that those two ghost pokemon infiltrated their campsite. More specifically, it was that Haunter that used nightmare on her. Why the ghost did it, Luna did not know; probably because he wanted to have fun. If it weren't for her, Aquos, and her newest member Rowena, Adair would have suffered even more. Luna and Aquos made eye contact and remained quiet. The girl lightly pretended to slice her neck, telling him to not give anything away.

"Wait, hold on a sec!" the energetic teen sped towards Adair and grabbed onto her shoulder. The older teen stopped and listened to what she had to say.

"I've got an idea!" she then turned Adair around and hid behind her back.

"Uh, what are you doing?" Adair questioned.

"Helping you out!" Luna hollered. Aquos still looked at her with curiousity and perked his head to the side.

"Aquos, hydro pump!" the sly teen ordered at her partner.

Finally realizing what she meant, the Vaporeon took a step back and prepared for his attack. He opened up his mouth and let out a jet of water.

"Vapor!" he cried as the freezing cold water was released.

In a matter of seconds, the watery blast made contact with Adair's face. She immediately woke up and started screaming. Luna on the other hand was laughing as her friend was tortured by the water.

"Eeks!" the other one shrieked.

Aquos stopped afterwards and sat back down. His fish-like tail was lying by his paws. Adair, now fully awake and soaking wet, clenched her fists and turned around.

"What the heck was that for!" she screamed. The younger girl back off a bit and gave her some space.

"What do you think I was doing? I was helping you out," Luna shook her hands in front of her as if she were under arrest.

"Without my permission?" the eighteen year old continued.

"Yeah, you would have said no anyway," Luna reasoned. The girl shrugged her shoulders and grinned.

"And also," she continued. "I couldn't decide whether to slap you silly or drench you in ice cold water."

Adair thought for a moment and put a finger up. "I think I would have preferred you slapping me."

Luna did not say anything after that. She just stared at her with one eyebrow up. Aquos did the same thing and stood by the black-haired trainer. Both looked on at the Johto denizen until they laughed hysterically.

"Oh man! Good one Adair!" Luna cheered as she knelt down and held her stomach. She then continued laughing and at the same time, losing her breath.

"Vapor! Vapor! Vapor!" Aquos giggled while closing his eyes.

Adair kept on glaring at them with her hands crossed. Before long, she was laughing with them at her own joke. She bent down on her knees and started gasping for breath.

"Gee, I didn't think you were good at making jokes!" Luna commented after she ceased her fun time. Moments later, she helped her companion up, who also stopped laughing.

"Me neither. I guess I didn't know I had a good sense of humor," she replied.

"Right," Luna answered sarcastically.

Just then, Luna's stomach rumbled. In embarrassment, she held her stomach and blushed a bit. Not long after that, Aquos' belly growled as well.

"Yipes! I didn't even notice it was lunchtime already," the novice trainer giggled.

"Well we have been walking around for a while. So stopping for a bit isn't a bad idea," Adair suggested.

"Agreed. Let's go find some shade and maybe a whole bunch of space for us to relax in," Luna responded afterwards.

With that said, all three heroes proceeded off the dirt path and traveled past a group of trees. They hurried on to find a good place to stop and quickly get some food to eat.

In a Forest Clearing

Luna, Adair, and Aquos were having a peaceful lunch in a nearby forest clearing. It was a few acres wide, with nothing but soft grass and a few handfuls of wildflowers. The rest of the forest created a fortress-like wall around the area. Enjoying the solitude, Luna and Adair munched further into their PB and J sandwiches while Aquos dug into his bowl of pokemon food.

"Hey Luna," Adair said as she stopped eating and looked at her friend.

"Yeah," Luna replied with her mouth full and did the same.

"Did it ever occur to you that you haven't seen my other pokemon?"

"No, and you haven't seen mine either, except for Aquos."

The Vaporeon stopped eating at the sound of his name. He turned his head to Adair to hear what else she has to say.

"Yeah, you're right," the older teen rested her head on her hand.

"I know! We can use this chance to introduce them!"

Luna stared at her with a puzzled expression. She kept on staring at her even after she finished her sandwich. Nonetheless, she agreed and smiled.

"Hey, that's not such a bad idea. Plus, they'd appreciate some fresh air. And look," she extended her hand and pointed at the entire area.

"There's a lot of space to run around in and play."

"Well, what are we waiting for?" They both stood up and walked a few yards away from each other.

Adair then took out her six pokeballs and threw them up in the air. One by one, the capsules opened and released their white light. Afterwards, Luna copied her motives and threw her two pokeballs in the air, both of which released their pokemon. The light that came from Adair's and Luna's balls reached the ground and revealed the rest of the family. Once out, the pokemon let out roars and cries as the said hello to the opposite trainer's pokemon.

"You want me to go first or do you?" Luna kindly asked.

"You can go first," Adair replied.

" 'kay. Rowena, Thorn, this is Adair and the rest of her pokemon," she introduced.

"Adair and family, this is my Mismagius, Rowena, and Thorn, my Roselia. Oh yeah, and Aquos, my Vaporeon," Luna concluded.

"Vapor!" Aquos jumped with joy.

"Rosie!" Thorn saluted and beamed.

"Mismagius," Rowena nodded.

"Cool! Then I would like you to meet my buddies. Luna, Aquos, I know you already met my Marowak," The older girl pointed out.

"Maro," he said as he twirled his bone club like a baton.

"And this is my Flaaffy."

"Flaaffy," the female pink sheep baaed.

"My Piloswine," she waked over to the giant tusked pig and brushed his furry back. He grunted in reply and shook his wooly fur. Adair steeped back and moved on to her next pokemon, which was a three-headed Dodrio.

"This is my buddy, or well, buddies in this case, Dodrio," the bird type cooed as his trainer stroked his middle head. The other two bowed their beaks and nudged her playfully.

"Hehe. Okay, okay, I'll play with you," the trainer laughed. Moving one from her fourth pokemon, she introduced her fifth pokemon, which was a Quagsire.

"My Quagsire," she patted him on the head. To Luna, the pokemon appears adorable except for its dot-like eyes. He just kept on smiling and staring at the young girl. Fear overcame Luna and she took a few steps back.

"Adair, your Quagsire scares me," Luna quavered.

"Oh, ignore him. He does that a lot."

Luna stared at him again. He kept on smiling and let out a yawn. He opened up his wide mouth and settled back down.

"Quag," the big blue tadpole cooed.

Luna, being awkward that she was, took a loud gulp. Aquos, Thorn, and Rowena on the other hand, weren't appalled by his appearance. Ignoring Luna's reaction, Adair stepped away form her water and ground type and approached her final pokemon. Towering above everyone else was Adair's Steelix.

"STEEL!" he cried.

"Whoa, you got a Steelix?" Luna jumped.

"Yep, he's mine all right," the girl smiled.

Thorn was really joyful to see a giant pokemon. Happily, he spun in circles at the fact that he could use the giant steel snake as an alternative mode of transportation.

"Steel," he grunted before snaking his way out of the clearing. In no time at all, the steel type was out of sight.

"Uh, Adair? Where's you Steelix going?"

"Oh yeah, I forgot to mention. Steelix doesn't eat pokemon food like the other pokemon. Instead, he eats mineral-rich rocks," Adair explained.

"So he has to travel around the area in order to get his food."

"What if he gets lost?" 

"Nah, I wouldn't worry about him. He always finds his way back. After all, he is a ground type," she concluded.

After that statement, Luna stared back at the recently created exit. What was originally a wall of trees was now a hole in the barrier. A few number of the greenery was off of its roots or just pushed aside, making it look like a tornado tore through the woods. Luna then gave a blank look and noticed the dirt trench that was left by the Steelix.

"Yeah, either that or he would just follow the mess he left behind," Luna sarcastically pointed out.

"That too. Either way, he always finds his way back," the older teen confidently bagged, again.

Just then, the pokemon turned their heads to the west side of the clearing. Luna's pokemon didn't need to since they were on the east side. Luna noticed this and turned in that direction. Deep in the foliage, she could faintly hear music; two acoustic guitars playing harmoniously to be exact. In response, both Luna's and Adair's pokemon walked toward the sound.

"Adair, check it out," the younger trainer showed the moving pokemon. Adair focused her attention to the pokemon and widened her eyes.

"Hey, what's going on?" At that moment, she heard the music and figured it out.

"Where's that music coming from?"

"I don't know. But I want to find out," Luna said as she dashed into the forest. Adair caught up to Luna, who was trying to stay close to her Vaporeon.

On and on, they ran past trees and bushes. Sometimes, they barely dodged the foliage. Other times, one of them would almost trip over small pokemon. Surprisingly, some pokemon were going in the same direction as the music.

Out of the corner of her eye, Luna noticed a female Ursaring and her Teddiursa cub following close by. Cautious on trying not to get in their way, she kept on moving through the trees. Other than seeing the bear family, the girl noticed a small handful of Pidgey and Pidgeotto flying overhead. Luna hurried onward, not knowing that what was coming would really affect the course of her life.

"Geez, what's going on here?" Adair asked. "Is this some kind of a concert?"

Right when she said that, both trainers had reached a part of the forest that looked like a sacred grove. In the middle of the grove was a single giant oak tree. Above, the sun rays leaked through the leaves and revealed the illusion of a tapestry. Surrounding the grove were more trees that acted as another barrier. But it wasn't the scenery that caught Luna's attention. It was the fact that the music was coming from a Pikachu and a boy that was playing on his red and white guitar.

He looked to be about fifteen years old, but his face made him look more mature. He had red highlights throughout his black spiky hair. The boy was wearing a grey leather jacket over his black and navy blue T-shirt. He also had on black pants, a single needle kneecap on his left leg, red and white shoe skates, and a twin strap belt. He also wore black fingerless gloves, a black belt-like choker, and a red necklace with a strange spiral symbol on it. As she kept on staring at the guitar playing boy, the Pikachu beside him began to sing a song. Oddly enough, he was playing "Hey There, Delilah".

**Pika pika pi-ka pika pika pika pi-ka pika**

**Pika pika pi-ka pika**

**Pika pika pi-ka pika pi-ka,**

**Pi pika pika pika pi-ka, pi pikachu**

**Pika pika pi-ka pika pika pika pi-ka pika**

**Pika pika pi-ka pika**

**Pika pika pi-ka pika pi-ka,**

**Pi pika pika pika pi-ka, pi pikachu**

After the first two verses were done, the pokemon sitting in front of the musicians swayed to the song. They consisted of an Oddish, a Rattata, a Pichu, and Shinx, and tiny Bidoof, and not surprisingly, Aquos. Not long after that, Adair's and Luna's pokemon, who were staying in front of the east barrier trees, did the same thing.

**Pi-ka pika pika pi—ka**

**Pi-ka pika pika pi—ka**

**Pi-ka pika pika pi—ka**

**Pi-ka pika pika pi—ka**

**Pika pika pi-ka**

**Pika pika pi-ka pika pika pi-ka pika**

**Pika pika pi-ka pika**

**Pika pika pi-ka, pika pi-ka pika pi pi—ka**

**Pi pi—ka**

**Pika pika pi-ka pika pika pika pi-ka pika**

**Pika pika pi-ka pika**

**Pika pika pi-ka pika pi-ka,**

**Pi pika pika pika pi-ka, pi pikachu**

**Pi-ka pika pika pi—ka**

**Pi-ka pika pika pi—ka**

**Pi-ka pika pika pi—ka**

**Pi-ka pika pika pi—ka**

As they progressed on with the song, Adair turned her attention away from the musical duo and noticed Luna swaying and humming with the song. Curious on how she knows the melody, Adair couldn't help but ask her.

"Uh, Luna? Do you by any chance know this song?"

"Hmm? Yeah, I do," Luna stopped and responded.

"This song is pretty popular back where I'm from."

"Oh, okay. I guess it's because I don't listen to the radio all the time," the eighteen year old figured. She turned her attention back to the duo.

"May be that's why," the other one replied. Then, Luna remembered something she should have noticed in the beginning of the song.

"_Wait a sec," she thought. "This can't be right. I'm the only one here that knows this song. Could it be possible that…"_

The trainer thought long and hard about her theory. To her, it just doesn't make any sense. She's the only one here that's form another dimension. And here's a boy that's playing a song that no one else knows.

"_No, no. That's not it. He can't be from another dimension, much less mine. Can he?"_ Luna continued to wonder.

"_I must be going out of my mind,"_ she told herself.

"_You know what?"_ she denied. _"Screw this, I like this song."_

And with that said, Luna forgot that theory of hers and focused back on the musicians, who were on the chorus for the final time.

**Pi-ka pika pika pi—ka**

**Pi-ka pika pika pi—ka**

**Pi-ka pika pika pi—ka**

**Pi-ka pika pika pi—ka**

**Pi pikachu**

And with those last few notes, the song ended. The boy and his Pikachu stopped strumming their guitars and acknowledged the cheers from the audience. The pokemon were clapping, cheering, jumping in joy, or all three.

"Yeah, whoo hoo! You guys rock!" Luna cheered.

At that instant, the boy opened his eyes and stared at the girl. Luna had never seen his eyes until now, but she would never forget that sight. His eyes were unlike the other peoples she had seen. Instead, they were as crimson as blood. She did not stop cheering or even lose eye contact.

The pokemon began to leave the area since they had finished their song. At the same time, Adair and Luna returned their pokemon back into their pokeballs, except for Aquos who preferred not to go back into its solid steel walls. The Pikachu slung his miniature guitar over his shoulder. Satisfied, he looked up at his buddy, but saw that he had a shocked expression.

"Pika?" the tiny mouse said.

"_This girl…where have I seen her before? Wait, this can't be. But she's way too different to be her,"_ the boy thought.

"_But still, she does bear a resemblance."_

Luna and Adair had finished returning their pokemon back into their pokeballs. Aquos, as usual, stayed outside since being inside a pokeball was boring. Nevertheless, all three saw the dark boy and his Pikachu step towards them.

"So, I'm guessing you enjoyed our little performance?" he asked after slinging his guitar over his shoulder.

"Sure did. My name's Luna and this is my buddy, Aquos," Luna introduced.

"Vapor!" the Vaporeon cried.

"Pikachu!" the boy's pokemon waved his left paw and greeted with a smile.

"Hey, my name's Adair. What's your name?" the Johto denizen put her hands on her hips.

"Humph," he grunted and looked away from them. "It's best if you didn't know me."

He started walking away from them. Adair lifted one eyebrow and Aquos just kept on staring at him. The guitar playing Pikachu caught up to him and stayed by his side. Just then, Luna ran in front of him and blocked his way.

"Hey, what's the big deal? You're leaving already?" she exclaimed. "We've only just met!"

The loner stopped walking and slightly turned his head towards her. Trying to keep his cool, he repeated what he had just said earlier.

"Didn't you hear what I just said?" he retorted.

"Yeah, I heard. I'm not deaf you know. But do you think that attitude of yours can get you to where you're going?" the girl protested. He said nothing and kept staring at her with heartless eyes.

"Uh-uh, you come back here right now and introduce yourself like a proper gentleman!" she nagged.

"Make me," he childishly teased.

"Oh, so first you think you can act all cool and…" Luna continued to rant nonsense.

During that time, Adair, Pikachu, and Aquos witnessed the two teens take it out on each other. Pikachu and Aquos just sat by each other staring in disbelief. Both never saw their friends act this way and they wanted to stop the argument. Yet, neither did anything fearing that it would harm their respective trainers' relationship towards them.

"Hey, I told you in the nicest way possible that I don't want to get to know you!" the stranger yelled.

"Well that's a nice way to make new friends! Why don't you try being nicer? Or better yet, learn some manners!" Luna hollered over his spiky head.

Adair could only roll her eyes and sigh. "Well, we're off to a great start."

Suddenly, a rumbling shook the ground beneath them. All five travelers lost balance and fell on the dirt. The boy knelt down and noticed a sizeable crack getting larger between him and Luna. Quickly reacting, he lunged toward the girl and rolled with her out of the way. Nearby, the crack broke and a Steelix emerged from the depths of the earth.

"STEEL!" he roared to the skies.

Adair snapped out of it and ran towards her Steelix. I an attempt to calm him down, she tried her best to reason with him. Aquos and Pikachu followed her example.

Nearby, Luna was recovering form her save. She opened her eyes and saw that she was lying under the shade of the barrier trees. Beneath her was the soft feel of grass and some dirt patches. But, her little blast from the past was ruined when she saw the boy lying on top of her.

"Are you all right?" he grunted as he rubbed the top of his head.

Luna's expression turned from embarrassment to anger at the fact that they were both in a weird position. She replied furiously back at him and sat upright. They boy backed off and gave her some space.

"Yeah, now I am! What were you thinking? Trying to go all Prince Charming on me!"

"What! I'd never do anything like that, especially to one like you!" the boy argued.

"Oh forget it!" she stood up and hurried to the rampaging Steelix.

"Ugh, she may have her appearance, but she acts nothing like her," the "minstrel" mumbled.

Meanwhile, Adair and Luna were trying to figure out why Steelix was acting up. All they noticed was that he kept on digging into the ground and popping back up again.

"Steelix, what's the matter with you? Have you lost it!" Luna reasoned.

"Talking to him isn't going to work! I've already tried!" Adair yelled form Luna's far right.

"Well then, we'll have to knock some sense into him!" she answered. Aquos heard this and went into his fighting stance by her side.

"Aquos, hydro pump!"

"Vap!" he cried. Steelix cut off his attack by unleashing his flash cannon attack.

"Steel!" he roared as he let loosed his attack. In a matter of seconds, the blast made contact and knocked Aquos into the ground.

"Vapor!" Aquos landed with a thud. He could not move as he lay sprawled on the ground.

"Aquos!" Luna screamed as she ran to his side. "Oh man, are you okay?"

"Por," he weakly sounded.

"Geez, I've never seen him act like this. Something's making him upset!" Adair said as she witnessed all that transpired.

"Then I won't stop until he's down!" the trainer responded with determination.

"No," the boy said as he stepped in front of her. Luna saw his Pikachu walk up to the rampaging pokemon.

Steelix did appear that he was in a rampage, but Luna noticed something that was different. He wasn't angry or anything because the steel snake kept on squirming in agony at times.

"I can handle this."

"Well, be careful with him, unless you want to get a night's ranting from Adair!" Luna warned.

The trainer did not look back at her. All he did was stare at the giant snake. Not scared by his actions, the youth stood his ground.

"I'll keep that in mind. Pikachu, volt tackle!" he ordered with his hand extended.

"Pi!" the electric mouse replied.

He immediately broke into a run and was soon surrounded by shining charges of electricity.

"Pika pika pika pika pika!" he cried as he charged toward the snake.

"PIKA!" the pokemon made contact with Steelix's thorax. However, the pokemon stood there smiling as the Pikachu was pushed back to his starting position.

Steelix wasn't phased at all. He growled as he enjoyed the sight of seeing Pikachu temporarily suffer from recoil damage.

"Pika," he groaned.

"You idiot!" Luna yelled behind him as she helped Aquos back up.

"Steelix is a ground type. Therefore, electric attacks have no effect against him!"

"You should have told me that earlier!" he argued back. "No matter, I've got other ideas anyway." 

"Try using skull bash!"

"Pika!" Pikachu broke into a run again and attempted to hit the steel type with his head.

Like before, Steelix retaliated and knocked the mouse back with his tail. With a single flick, he sent him flying in the air.

"Pika!" he yelped. He then landed on the ground beside Luna with a thud.

"Well, that didn't work either," he said.

"Of course not! Normal type attacks don't do much damage against a steel type like Steelix!" Luna ranted again.

"Then what do you expect me to do!" the boy hollered.

"Do you have a Plan B?"

The trainer looked down and closed his eyes. He then looked at the pokemon in the eye and dashed towards him. Like an Olympic athlete, he sped up and jumped into the air. He side-stomped kicked him in the thorax and expected the pokemon to fall back. But to no avail, his strength did nothing. In retaliation and boredom, Steelix opened his mouth and let out his dragonbreath attack. The trainer was knocked down to his knees by the greenish plasma beam, but soon got back onto his feet after the attack stopped.

"What the heck was that about!" Luna blustered.

"My Plan B that miserably failed," he explained.

"That's not what I was referring to! Don't you have any other pokemon?" she furiously questioned.

"Frankly, no."

"Geez, and you call yourself a trainer," Luna sarcastically insulted.

Ignoring that last statement, the boy focused back on the situation. Especially on the part that his Plan B didn't work out very well.

"_I don't believe this; first my powers have seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth. Then my speed and strength have been reduced to almost nothing, and now I have this girl tormenting me?"_ he yelled in his thoughts.

Out of nowhere, Adair appeared from behind the boy and ran up to her enraged Steelix. Surprised at her sudden appearance, the two heroes readied themselves for another attack.

"Steelix, here!" Adair threw a palm sized stone at him.

Steelix grunted and swallowed the stone whole. Now distracted, the eighteen year old ran up to the left side of his body and investigated the rocky gaps.

"Adair, get back here!" Luna loudly whispered. "Do you want to get squashed or something?"

"Just give me a few more seconds."

She then reached into the fourth segment and felt around the dark space. In the gap, she felt a large stone and begun to pull at it. It took a few large tugs, but she finally pulled it out.

"STEEL!" the pokemon screamed as a jolt of pain shot through his system. It wasn't long before he finally calmed down.

"You've been a very bad boy today, haven't you," the trainer rubbed her pokemon's side.

The steel type turned to his trainer and looked at her with sympathy. Adair was not angry and drew out her pokeball.

"Steel," he softly cried in apology.

"It's okay," she said returning Steelix to his capsule. "Just don't do it again."

"So, why have been M.I.A. the entire time?" asked Luna after walking up to her with a rejuvenated Aquos by her side.

"Well, a good trainer always needs to be alert. And observing the situation is one of them. Plus, Steelix kept on squirming to one side occasionally," Adair explained.

"Either that, or you were just too scared to face him," the boy walked up to the two girls with Pikachu on his shoulder.

"Shut up. Right now, the important thing is, you two need to make up," she said as she turned to Luna first then to the boy.

"Luna, control you temper. And you, whoever you are, you'd better fix that ego of yours."

"Okay, I will try," she acknowledged.

"Whatever," was his only reply.

"And to think, all this ranting happened over a little thing like asking you name," Adair shamefully reminded. "Which you haven't given to us yet."

"Name's Shadow," he reluctantly introduced.

"Okay Shad, let's be friends! We can travel around the world getting gym badges together! Yippee!" Luna cheered and clapped her hands.

That little statement was enough to pop Shadow's nerve. Rambunctiously, he turned to face the young woman.

"Didn't you hear me? My name's Shadow!"

"Yeah, but I can call you Shad whenever I want," the girl sang.

"Don't call me that! It makes me feel like a dork!" Shad argued.

"Nope, that's you name from now on," Luna sang again.

"Oh boy, all that advice went down the drain," Adair mumbled as she rolled her eyes and shook her head.

While they argued, Pikachu was investigating the dark crystal shard that Adair dropped on the ground. Curious about it, he picked it up and turned it in his paws. All of a sudden, the rock started glowing and enveloped Pikachu in a bright light. The trainers and Aquos all faced at where Pikachu was and shielded their eyes. After a few seconds, the light died down and revealed the result. Everyone regained their eyesight and focused back on Pikachu.

"Well, that was new. So what happened?" said Adair as she rubbed her eyes.

"I'll tell you what happened. Shad, check out your Pikachu!" Luna told him.

All of them gawked at Pikachu at what they saw. The electric type's fur coloring had changed form yellow to black. His stripes and cheeks still contained the red color. Pikachu kept on staring at the trainers and wondered what was going on.

"Pika?"

"Dude, you Pikachu just went through a major costume change. He looks just like a Zorua!" Adair exclaimed.

"I noticed," Shadow replied.

Pikachu looked down and saw what everyone was seeing. Indeed his fur had changed to a grayish dark, almost black color, which made him look almost like that dark fox in the Unova region.

"Pika! Pika! Pika! Pika!" he screamed and ran around in circles.

"Hey Adair, what was that thing you pulled out of you Steelix?" Luna asked her.

"I don't know. It looked like graphite or quartz to me. I thought it was trash," she replied.

"Well, it looks like it wasn't. Shad, have you ever been to Pewter City yet?"

"There's a city that's not far from where we're standing," he responded.

"Hmm, I don't know what the deal was with that shard, but I'm sure we're bound to find out sooner or later," Luna pondered.

"So what do we do?" The older teen questioned her.

"Well, right now, we can focus on getting the gym badges while at the same time, we can figure out the mystery of that shard and figure out what happened to Pikachu."

"Sounds good to me," Adair answered.

"Agreed," Shadow seconded.

Aquos had just finished calming down the frantic Pikachu. The electric type was taking in deep breaths and counting to ten.

"Vapor!" Aquos cried and smiled.

"Pika," Pikachu agreed as he exhaled.

"Great, now let's get a head on to Pewter City!" Luna cheered.

The three heroes and their pokemon began trekking out of the forest. This day was pretty interesting with all sorts of events; Shadow has arrived into a new world, Luna and Adair have made new friends, they calmed down a Steelix, and Pikachu's little incident. To Luna, her journey just got a bit more interesting, but she did not know that so much more is about to come.

_Wow, that was exhausting. But, at least it's done. So let's recap the questions: how did Shadow turn into a human? How did he meet Pikachu? How and when did that Pikachu learn how to play a guitar? What's the deal with all of these shards? And more importantly, will Shadow and Luna ever stop their bickering? All of these are valid questions, but you'll have to keep reading the story. Hope you enjoyed this chapter! _


	9. Battle - Pewter City Gym

_All right, it's finally here. Luna's VERY first gym battle! Nope, I did not abandon this story for those of you who were wondering. I was just working on another fanfic so that would explain the long wait. It will take me a while to create the next chapter but I will get to work on it as fast as I can so that I could post it within an amount of time. So, without further ado, I present Chapter 8!_

Chapter 8

May 24, 2010

Pewter City

10:55 AM

After days of wandering through a labyrinth-like Viridian Forest, Luna and her friends have finally reached Pewter City, the sight of the much anticipated gym battle. Just recently, a mysterious and hot-headed boy by the name of Shadow, or Shad as Luna likes to call him, and his guitar playing Pikachu who had underwent a strange appearance change. Today, Luna is all fired up to get her first ever gym badge, in fact there is nothing that would stop this group from seeing this battle.

"Is she done yet?" Shadow impatiently asked Adair.

Shadow, Aquos, and Adair were sitting on a wooden bench outside of a small shopping mall. The boy sat down with his arms crossed over his chest and started to rigorously bounce his right leg. Aquos was fully stretched on the cement as he was taking a small nap just feet away from the active limb and from both the traveling bags and the guitar case. Adair sat next to the impatient Shadow and was getting mildly annoyed from his antics, but kept her cool at the same time to avoid any trouble. Unlike him, she was patiently waiting for her friend and not doing any other stupid stuff.

The shopping mall was roughly the size of a football field. It was like any ordinary mall; it had a food court, about one hundred-plus shops, and was organized into three floors. The color theme was sandy brown and yellow, mostly because it wanted to fit in with the gym leader's element. A lot of people go here, especially on the weekends, or so they figured. Nevertheless, it is a popular place in the city.

"It's been nearly two hours already. What's taking her so long?" Shadow went again.

"Oh pipe down, will ya? Luna must have a good reason to keep us waiting for this long. Besides, we can use this time to strategize for any upcoming gym battles," Adair reasoned.

Shadow looked at her in confusion and raised an eyebrow. "You're sounding like you're not going to do battle the gym today."

"I'm not," she replied as she reached into her left-shorts pocket and took out a peach-colored rectangular case. She then opened it and revealed the badges she had collected from the Johto region and on another flap the boulder badge from Pewter City.

"…Humph…," he turned away from her. "What are we doing here anyway?"

Adair closed the case and returned it to her pocket and shrugged. "Don't know. Luna said that she needed to do something before we get to the gym."

"And this 'something' of hers involves my Pikachu?" the dimensional traveler said as he referred to Luna bringing his Pikachu inside.

"Pretty much. Whatever it is," the older girl replied.

Just then, the glass sliding doors in front of them parted. From the inside, they could see the figure of Luna stepping out into the sunlight. She was carrying an oversized yellow textbook in her arms, making her appear like a school girl. Smiling, she walked up to her friends and stood in front of them.

"Well, it's about time. What were you doing in there?" Shadow asked as he stood up.

"I was running a few errands," she said calmly. Aquos immediately woke up at the sound of her voice and got up to sit next to her.

"What kind of errands?" Adair questioned her.

"First off, this is yours," she said as she lamed the textbook on the boy's lap. The weight was mildly heavy that Shadow nearly fell on the ground. He quickly regained his footing and stood straight again.

"What's this for?" he groaned.

"Your actions in the field yesterday were unacceptable. Therefore, this book here will help you out on learning how to battle properly," Luna replied in a naggy-sort of tone.

"But this thing is 500 pages long!" he complained as he scanned through the pages.

"Then I suggest you start reading. And also, I actually did 2 favors for you today," she mentioned.

"What sort of-?" he was about to ask until he was cut off by small shuffling steps behind her.

At that statement, an orange-colored Pikachu with a guitar strapped to his back stepped out from the back of Luna's left leg. He inquisitively looked up at his owner and gave a small wave and a sheepish grin. Shadow caught sight of the Pikachu and gawked at him. Adair then saw him and perked up eyebrow up.

"…is that…? That wouldn't be…?" she stammered.

"…Luna…," the boy fumbled speechlessly. "You idiot! What have you done to him! He looks just like a cup of orange juice!"

"What have I done to him? I merely made him as normal as he possibly could be!" the girl stood aback and argued angrily.

"Why did you do it! I liked him the way he was before!" he screamed with tightened fists.

"Wha? Would you rather he looked like some sort of Halloween freak and attract unwanted attention or look like a shiny and be somewhat normal! If I didn't do this big favor, then he'd be sticking out like a sore thumb!" Luna shouted and stomped her foot.

"That doesn't give you the right to change his appearance!" the spiky haired boy retorted back.

"I just helped you out and this is how you thank me!" argued in disgust.

"This isn't a favor you've done for me! This is more of an insult! He looks like a clown!" he yelled as they ranted on.

During that time, Aquos and Pikachu could only stare at their owners with sweat dropping down their heads. This was by far the second time they have done this and they had no idea to settle an argument such as this. The aquarian mammal merely shook his head and the orange mouse slapped his forehead in annoyance. Adair rolled her eyes and sighed. The good news was that mostly everyone was inside the buildings. The bad news, there were a few people staring and gathered around the arguing teens from the sidelines.

"Uh, ma'am?" a tall man who wore a yellow polo T-shirt and brown office pants strode nearby Adair and asked her.

"Are they by any chance with you?" he asked in curiosity and slight fear.

The teen shook her head in defiance. Being careful to not tell him the wrong stuff, she turned and smiled to him.

"Nope, I don't even know them," she lied while rubbing the back of her neck with her right gloved hand.

Luna and Shadow kept at it for another fifteen minutes and they didn't even pay attention to the growing crowd around them. Having enough of the growing paparazzi, Adair carried their traveling supplies and pulled on the younger trainers by the ear. They ceased arguing and became irritated of being yanked by their ears, which caused them to repeatedly say 'ouches' and 'ows'. Shadow tried to pull away from Adair but she wouldn't even budge. Luna too much in pain to pull away feared that struggling would make it worse. As they walked on, the paparazzi took a last glance with confusion at them before going on with whatever they were doing. Not far behind them, Aquos and Pikachu stifled a few chuckles.

Pewter City Gym

11:30 AM

Luna, Adair, Shadow, Aquos and Pikachu all stood in front of an entrance comprised of rocks. Not counting the brick path the entire area was littered with rocks of all shapes and sizes. Most of which were a little taller than Adair. Other than that, the rest of the gym was like an enclosed warehouse. Along with that, it was also about three-quarters the size of a football field.

"Well, we're here. Luna, you want to-?" Adair said.

"I'll go!" Luna jumped as she happily answered.

"That was kind of expected," Shadow put his right thumb and index finger on his forehead.

"Hey, at least you'll be able to learn a thing or two about going into a real battle," Luna bragged to him.

"What did you just say!" he shouted at her.

"Oh forget this," he then sighed. "Let's just get this over with."

All three heroes and their pokemon proceeded through the metal twin doors and entered. Inside was no different from outside. The lights came on as they walked which gave them a clear visual of what the building had. There were cement bleachers on both sides of the gym, kind of like a school stadium. Like outside, there were rocks everywhere since this was a rock type gym.

"Some gym," Luna whistled while marveling at the design.

"Awesome! I've been itchin' for more challengers!" a voice sounded from the other side of the field.

The heroes turned their heads to that side of the gym. Beyond the numerous boulders stood Luna's greatly expected opponent. Much to their surprise, the person was a 12 year old boy with brown spiky hair, not as spiky as Shadow's though. He wore a red striped polo shirt and brown jeans and was barefoot. Unlike everyone else, his eyes were slanted ans he had freckles on his cheeks.

"Behold!" he hollered in a deep braggy tone. "Hear me with my totally awesome voice!"

"Is this some kind of sick joke?" Shadow muttered and rolled his eyes.

"Some things never changed…" Adair shook her head in disappointment.

"Listen well knaves, for I am only going to say this once! Like a rock, no one can harm me! Like a boulder, I cannot be moved that easily! Like a mountain, I stand above all who oppose me! I am Forrest!" he chanted like a Batman wannabee. Forrest lifted his fists up as he imagined explosions behind him.

"Forrest, you're acting like a dork again," someone sighed beside him.

Standing right beside him was an older boy. Most presumably his brother due to the fact that he's a more mature version of him. Like Forrest, he had the same eyes and the same hairstyle except the hair was a little darker than his. This one wore an orange vest over his green T-shirt and the same type of pants. He stood there beside him with his hands crossed.

"Honestly, do you have to keep doing that?"

"Aw, come on Brock!" Forrest complained. "Can I have just one awesome motto? All the gym leaders get one!"

"No Forrest, they don't," Brock shook his head and groaned. "Sorry about my brother. He just recently took up the position as gym leader some time ago. He's still learning the ropes."

"Hey, it's fine. It was kind of interesting," Luna commented and did an 'it's okay' gesture.

"Or the fact that it was kind of lame," Shadow said under his breath.

"You say somethin'?" the younger girl questioned.

Shadow did not reply and remained silent. Forrest did not hear what he said and did not know about the insult. Then, he noticed the Pikachu that stood beside Shadow and gasped. At that moment, the mouse pokemon yelped and hid behind Shadow's leg. It was a bad attempt at hiding since the guitar was sticking out and his ears popped from both sides of the leg.

"Whoa, that's a really cool Pikachu you got there!" Forrest jumped in amazement. "The colors are awesome!"

"What?" Shadow lifted and eyebrow.

"Yeah, I've seen a few Pikachu's in my life, but not an orange one!"

Pikachu was a little embarrassed by the comment and peeked from the leg to look up at him. A sweat drop slowly fell down his cheek when he heard more of Forrest's comments. Shyly, he put his right paw behind his ear.

"Pika…" he quietly cried.

"So, you actually like my Pikachu?" the trainer asked with his eyes closed. Luna nudged Shadow on his elbow and smirked at him. The boy then took hold of defeat and groaned.

"Heck yeah! I can't wait to battle him!" the gym leader replied.

"Well you won't. I'm not here for a battle. I'm just here to watch," he responded.

"What!" they all screamed.

"What the hey! You're not going to battle!" Luna yelled. "But you're a trainer! How can you refuse to battle a gym leader!"

"I'm not interested," he replied while not turning to her and kept his stature.

"Honestly," she then turned to the two brothers. "I don't even know what's up with this guy…my apologies for Shad's rudeness. Anyway, I'm Luna and this is Aquos," she introduced herself and gestured towards her pokemon who was sitting to her left.

"Por!" Aquos greeted and nodded.

"You already know me. I'm Adair," she reminded them.

"Yeah I know you. I battled you some time ago," Forrest said.

"And I know you fair lady…," Brock suddenly appeared in front of Adair and knelt down to one knee.

"It certainly has been a long time dear Adair. Why once you left this city, my heart was crying out in pain. Long have I waited for your return or at least a glimpse of your beautiful face!" he said as he held her left hand close to his heart.

Adair got freaked out at this point and tried to pull away from him. But to no avail, his grip was too hard and she couldn't get away. In Brock's point of view, the area became lush with pink and yellow hearts and his face appeared like a prince charming wannabee.

"But then, you came back to me! Forgive me for not recognizing you at first sight! But perhaps we could forget that little incident happened over dinner?" he graciously asked.

Suddenly, the dream ended when Adair punched him in the face with her free fist. The guy fell on the ground due to the force and was squirming from the pain. Already, he was screaming 'ows' while everyone looked at him in shame.

"Serves him right," Shadow smirked and chuckled.

"Honestly, doesn't he have any manners?" Adair said as she clapped and rubbed her hands together in satisfaction while holding her head high.

"By the looks of it, no," Luna groaned as she remembered his antics from her world. She then remembered what she was about to say and turned to Adair. "Hey Adair, you said you've already got the badge to this gym right?"

"Yup," she replied and revealed the badge to her. She then conversed with Forrest a bit while Luna gawked at her. After a few moments of shock, she turned to Brock who was just getting back on his feet.

"Um, Brock right?" she lied by making her seem like she barely knew him. "If Forrest is the current leader, then weren't you the leader before?"

"Yeah, but not anymore. For quite a while, I was studying to become a Pokemon Breeder. But there was an incident when I was over at Sinnoh and, well, I decided to become a Pokemon Doctor. But enough of these conversations, you're here for a gym battle so let's get this underway. Ready Forrest?"

"Heck yeah!" the boy replied with excitement.

"Great, I'll be the referee. I guess it's time Luna," Brock said to her. She nodded and gripped her fists together for the battle.

5 minutes later…

Luna and Aquos stood at the exit side of the field. Since this was her first gym battle, she was feeling pretty nervous. Aquos sat by her side looking proud and ready for anything. Forrest was also ready on the opposite side of the field, ready for the battle. He looked at Luna with a stern expression, even though she couldn't quite see it because he was so far away. Shadow, Adaor, and Pikachu sat in the bleachers and waited patiently for the battle to commence. Shadow and Pikachu sat one seat above Adair while Brock stood on the same side in the middle of the sidelines.

"The battle between Forrest the gym leader and Luna the challenger is about to commence! This is a one-on-one gym battle so only one pokemon is permitted. The first pokemon to go down in defeat ends the match!" Brock announced.

"Both trainers may now send out their pokemon!"

Forrest reached into his pocket and took out a small mini-pokeball. He then pressed the button in the middle and enlarged it.

"Now let's see what you've got!" he called as he threw his pokeball into the field.

At that instant, the capsule opened and released its white energy. The light then landed on the dirt and disappeared to reveal the pokemon. In its place was a massive and heavy-looking Golem.

"Golem!" the rocky ball cried as he slammed his fists together.

"Golem huh? This is going to be a snap!" Luna took out her pokeball and enlarged it.

"Vapor!" Aquos stood up surprised and faced his trainer.

"I know you want to go for it, but Thorn hasn't had enough battle experience, well, save for that battle with those ghost pokemon in the Viridian Forest, but that was mostly Rowena. Hey, I'll make it up to you by giving you a ton of pecha berry-flavored pokemon food after this," she reassured him. With that said, the Vaporeon smiled and jumped in glee.

"Por! Por! Vapor!"

"Good, that's a good sport. Now then," she said as she hurled her pokeball into the air.

The capsule opened and let out the flower dancer. Gracefully, Thorn spun and shook his flowers before landing softly on the ground.

"Rosie!"

"Ha! Just because you've got a cute little Roselia doesn't mean that I'm going to win this match!" Forrest taunted and moved his right index finger from side-to-side.

"Oh yeah? We'll see about that!" Luna replied with determination to win.

"Battle begin!" Brock extended his arms and kick-started the battle.

"Okay then! Thorn, use hidden power!" Luna started.

The Roselia created jade-colored bubbles around his body in response to the order. He then crossed his tulip arms and uncrossed them, causing the balls to dash directly to the ground/rock type.

"Rosie!" he shouted as he let out his attack.

The attacks hit with succession. The psychic type balls made contact with Golem's rock-hard skin and burst like bubbles. As a protective maneuver, Golem crossed his arms as he was pushed back from the force. Forrest was a little surprised by this; he did not expect this Roselia to have that much power considering that this was a normally effective move.

"Wow, that thing's stronger than I thought," he commented when Thorn finished his attack.

The power of the attack caused the ground type to be pushed back about 10-15 feet from his position. Even though he was one of the heaviest pokemon, he was no match for the attack.

"Man, you sure have been training for this, haven't ya?"

"Yup! It is my first gym battle after all. Which means for sure that I'm going to win!"

"Don't count your Torchic's before they hatch!" Forrest taunted.

"What?" Luna replied in a confused manner.

The young leader smirked and went back into the battle. "Golem, use rock polish!"

"Golem!"

The rock type slammed his three-fingered fists together and performed his action. The rock hard skin transformed from a dull brown to as shining and bright as a diamond. There was a little light emanating from the pokemon making the field look as if an angel appeared from heaven. Thorn braced himself and waited for Luna's turn after the light had died down.

"Hmm, so this thing is starting off with rock polish. I better take precautions then," Luna thought.

"Thorn, sludge bomb!" she yelled as she formed a fist from her right hand.

The Roselia spun in the air and hurled purple slime all over the field. All around, the numerous slime balls fell with a splat and stuck on the ground like goop. The attack was about to hit Golem, but the pokemon dodged all of the attacks in time thanks to his increased speed.

"That thing's moving faster than before," Shadow crossed his arms again.

"Well duh, that's what rock polish does. It increases the user's speed. So one minute you're as slow as a Slowpoke and the next you're like that!" Adair pointed out as she crossed her right leg over her left.

The Mobiun turned his attention back to the battle. He kept on locking his gaze on Golem as the pokemon narrowly dodged the sludge bullets.

"Well, at least he's not as fast as me," he smirked.

"Huh?" Adair curiously perked her head towards him and lifted one eyebrow in confusion. Seeing that, Shadow let out a small gasp and gritted his teeth.

"Nothing," he said in slight defiance and lied to her about it. The two trainers ceased their conversation and focused back on the battle.

"Now use double-edge!" the gym leader ordered.

In response, the Golem glowed yellow and charged after the grass type. Thorn was too busy hurling the dark goop to notice the oncoming attack. In a flash, Golem slammed Thorn straight in the chest and knocked him to the ground.

"Rosie!" Thorn cried.

"Thorn, are you okay?" Luna asked her fallen pokemon.

"Ros…," he groaned as he slowly got up from his sprawled position.

"Yeesh that was a pretty strong double-edge. Better be careful of that move," she warned her pokemon.

"That move's the least of your worries. Golem, rollout!"

"Go!" he replied.

The pokemon held his arms and legs back. As that was happening, Golem started to roll in place like a moving tire. The pokemon started to roll faster to gain speed and hurled even more dirt in his wake. He was now like a makeshift pinball that was about to launch. After a few seconds of gaining speed, Golem launched from his position and tumbled towards the downed flower dancer. Thanks to the effect of rock polish, Forrest's pokemon was twice as fast as before. Thorn did not see the oncoming pokemon since he was so fast.

"Ros!" he screamed as he was hit into the air.

The grass type was almost close to the ceiling as an effect from the launch. He was then falling fast towards the ground but at the same time, Golem was rolling back to his falling opponent. Thorn free-fell in the air but was then hit by the rolling attack. Once again, he was thrown upwards.

"Ros!" he cried yet again in fear.

This action continued for the next few minutes. It was like a game of kick the hacky-sack, with Golem as the foot and Thorn as the sack itself. As the rock type continuously made contact with Thorn, his speed increased along with the amount of the attack's power. With each attack, the smaller pokemon was being bounced around like a ragdoll.

"Rosie! Rosie! ROSIE!" he shrieked as he kept on being hit.

"Keep it together, Thorn! Use petal dance when he comes near you!" Luna shouted to him while trying to hold in her nervousness.

Thorn's eyes snapped wide open at his trainer's command. As he fell, the pokemon patiently waited for the boulder to approach him. It was a little hard for him to track his movements, but he nevertheless kept his focus. Thorn spun in the air and released razor-sharp pink petals around him.

"Rosie!"

Right when the petals were about to make contact with their target, Golem swerved out of the way in a serpentine motion. Once at a close range, the boulder rolled up on a stalagmite and launched into the air. Thorn ceased his attack and turned around only to see his opponent dropping down on him. In a split second, the weight of a ton was bearing down on his back.

"ROS!" he cried in pain as he was forcefully pushed down on the field.

"Thorn!" Luna called.

"Vapor!" Aquos yelled at that moment in response to the event.

"Ooh, that's gotta hurt…" Shadow winced.

"Pika!" Pikachu cried in worry.

Like a meteor, the two pokemon fell from the air and slammed down into the middle of the stadium. As a result, a giant cloud of dust filled the air and covered that part of the arena. When the covering disappeared, both leader and trainer could see and average-sized crater as deep as 3 feet. In it was Golem who was slowly getting up and Thorn who was lying still in the middle.

"Oh crap, Thorn!" Luna gasped with her hands on her mouth.

Brock looked closely at the fallen pokemon and leaned in to get a closer look. He waited for the pokemon to make a move from his position. The referee predicted a defeat, since the grass type received a hard beating and was covered in multiple bruises. Thorn did not move and he announced the result.

"Thorn is-," he was about to announce.

"No, he's fine! He's just recovering from the attack is all!" Luna argued.

"Sorry Luna, but I'm the referee and I call the shots," Brock calmly responded.

"Well don't call it yet! He'll get up, you'll see!"

"Guess this means I win," Forrest bragged and smiled in triumph.

"You shut up!" Luna yelled in anger with a mix of worry.

Adair, Aquos and Pikachu widened their eyes at the sound of Luna's protest. Brock was surprised as well but was more disappointed at his brother for that horrid remark. Shadow did the same, even though he sat there with his arms crossed.

"That girl's definitely not like her at all," he thought to himself.

"Come on Thorn! Get up!" Luna went again.

The Roselia lay still on the cold ground. The girl was frantic in trying to not lose the battle, so she called out again.

"Thorn, please, you have to get up! I know you're stronger than this! Don't give up now!"

"Vapor Vapor!" Aquos cried as well.

The trainer clenched her fists and worried some more. At the same time, she was keeping an eye on Brock, making sure that he doesn't say the result. Luna growled and yelled to her pokemon.

"Thorn, wake up!"

At that instant, Thorn snapped his eyes open at the sound of her voice. His small body started to stir as he tried to get up. However, the little stirs weren't very noticeable to the referee. Luna sighed and looked down in despair knowing she had lost the battle.

"At this moment," Brock announced. "Thorn is unable to…huh?"

All six people in the room tried to stifle a gasp from what they were seeing. Even Pikachu looked on in amazement by this sight. Thron struggled to stand up, and just as he did, his entire body began to glow. Not that of a flashlight, but of a ghostly, almost angelic light. Soon, he became cloaked in that light and began to change. The flowers that were his 'hands' grew into bouquets, his face developed a mask and what seemed to be cotton for hair, he grew taller, and finally the tunic he wore disappeared and was replaced by a cape. Luna may be amazed but she knew what it was.

"He's…evolving…" she said with a gasp.

Then a thought hit her. Roselias belong to a group of pokemon that could only evolve with a shiny stone. She couldn't find any that was near her evolving Thorn. That was, until she noticed a transparent cream colored stone just inches from where he stood. This surprised the trainer and soon began asking herself questions.

"How in the world did that get there? Does this mean that fate wants me to win this?" she thought.

The light of evolution faded as Thorn's transformation reached its end. As it did, the stone nearby faded with a glow since its task was completed. He looked like any other Roserade except for his slightly smaller size. The young flower dancer opened his re-yellow eyes and somersault jumped out of the crater. With little effort, he landed just feet away from the surprised hulking Golem.

"Roserade!" he yelled as he pointed his red bouquet at the rock-ground type.

With that, Luna couldn't help but smile at this moment. Even though she's still somewhat inexperienced, she knew that this battle was finally hers.

"All right Thorn! Let's show them what we can really do! Are you ready!" the girl asked her pokemon with determination.

"Roserade!" Thorn hollered back as he got into a karate-fighting stance.

"Now hold on just a second!" Forrest piped with his arms waving in a refusal pattern. His angry slanted eyes stared into her soul.

"Evolution stones are not allowed to be used during a battle, especially this one!" he said as pointed at Luna with right index finger.

"You must have planted that stone in the stadium right before the match! Therefore, you are disqualified!"

"What! But I never did such a thing! I don't know what you're talking about!" the challenger argued. She got angry by this but did her best to stay polite.

Adair stood from the bleachers and turned to Forrest. It was obvious her anger was emanating from her face. She stomped her foot and yelled back.

"She's right! Luna was with us the entire time so she wouldn't have had the chance if she did it. Plus, even if she did, I'd be ranting to her about it at this time and I wouldn't have let her battle you!" she smiled in Luna's direction after she was done.

"Thanks Adair," she smiled back.

"Well if none of you did it, then what about your suspicious friend in the bleachers!" the leader then pointed at Shadow.

"What are you blabbering on about? I never did anything," he replied while keeping his eyes closed and keeping his cool. "Just like what the other girl said-."

"It's Adair! I have a name you know!" she interrupted in annoyance.

"Whatever," the minstrel shook his head. "I was with them the whole time. Now you can quit your yammering and get bat to the battle!"

"Now wait just-!"

"That's enough Forrest!" Brock scolded as he turned to his brother.

"If these trainers never did anything to cause this event to happen, then they're not to blame. And besides…" he grew still as a vein popped from his forehead. "I know who did it."

"Really? Who?" Forrest asked his brother.

"Forrest, who in this family likes to collect evolutionary stones and fossils?" Brock reminded.

"Who here seems to have run out of places where those findings could be stored?"

The gym leader thought for a minute and crossed his arms. He gasped when he understood what his older brother was talking about. At that moment, a nerve popped on his forehead as well and he began to shake in anger.

"Dad! You'll pay for this!" he shouted as he jumped in anger. "I swear once I find you…!"

As the rant went on, all three trainers couldn't help but stare at him in shock and confusion. The exception was Brock, who felt the same way but was shaking his head in disappointment. As for the pokemon, they were all staring at Forrest with confused expressions yet were kind of enjoying this little entertainment of a rant.

"Alright enough of this little fiasco!" Luna hollered when she got fed up with the situation.

"Can we proceed with the battle already?"

Forrest stopped his ranting and calmed down. The boy stood tall and put his hands on his hips and pointed at her. He then acted cool towards her as if nothing had happened and responded to her demand.

"Yeah, you're right. Let's get on with this."

"In that case," Brock announced. "Battle resume!"

"Your Roselia may have evolved, but it's still weak due to all of the damage my Golem did to it! Golem, finish this battle with rollout!"

"Golem!" he cried as he got into his ball form and charged towards his opponent.

"That won't work on us anymore! Thorn, spray it with sludge bomb!" Luna ordered as an idea hit her.

"Roserade!" the flower dancer cried as it sprayed a jet of the gooey purple substance from his flowers at the wrecking ball.

The pokemon did slow down somewhat from the attack but he was still coming towards him at full force. Thorn didn't lose his concentration as he kept up his attack.

"Dodge it!" the girl then commanded.

"Rose!" the pokemon jumped into the air and dodged the charging ball. The Golem, now covered in icky sludge, rolled uncontrollably into the crater and was launched into the air.

"What the? What's this!" Forrest gasped as he witnessed his pokemon rolling in the air.

"Just what I wanted! Now Thorn, let's finish this with petal dance!" the girl commanded with a smile of hope.

"Roserade!" the pokemon chanted as he got ready to perform his dance.

With eyes filled with determination, the pokemon spun in the air slowly at first but then sped up quickly. The razor sharp pink petals then formed from the dance and surrounded the dancer. As the dance went on for a few more moments, the range of the petals became larger until the Golem was trapped by the swirling vortex. Up in the air, it looked like a shining pink disco ball, which amazed Adair and Pikachu as they stared at it in awe.

"GOLEM! GOLEM!" the pokemon screamed in pain as the petals cut through the rock hard skin and gave more damage to it.

"Oh no! Golem!" Forrest screamed at his ailing partner.

Then, Thorn's movements slowed down and the petals soon vaporized into nothingness as he stopped his spinning. He floated down gracefully and crossed his arms as his opponent dropped from the air back into the middle of the crater. The impact was so great that the sound of the crashing nearly broke everybody's eardrums and the smoke covered the entire stadium. All of the trainers and the pokemon, save for Thorn, shielded their eyes from the dust and the wind that was created. A few moments more and the dust cleared, revealing a defeated and sprawled Golem with swirling eyes.

"Golem is unable to battle! The winner is Thorn and the victory goes to Luna!" Brock announced with indifference and showed his hand to the trainer. Right when he said that, Forrest returned his pokemon to his pokeball and said something inaudible to Luna's ears. She couldn't hear what he said, but she could tell that he was okay with his defeat.

"Alright! Whoohoo!" Luna cheered as she jumped for joy. Both Thorn and Aquos were doing the same at that moment as well. "We did it Thorn! We did it!"

The Roserade ran up to his trainer and jumped up to her chest. Once he did, he gave her a big hug and Luna happily returned the favor. Together, they spun around in happiness as the reveled in their first gym battle victory.

"Man that was a good battle. You're going to be a fine trainer after all," Adair commented as she, Shadow, and Pikachu walked up to their friend.

"Thanks, I didn't think I'd pull it off, but I did it!" she laughed as she continued to hug her Roserade.

"Yeah, I guess you did good…" Shadow said in a low tone but he did it to prevent himself from showing any emotion.

"Pika!" Pikachu cheered as well.

"You really did well out there Luna. It's been a while since I've done this, but rules are rules I guess," the gym leader congratulated with a smile as he and Brock walked up to the trainer. "Here, take this. You've earned it."

He held a silver tray in his hands and in it was a tiny boulder-shaped badge. It glinted under the light and gave a little sparkle to Luna, almost like it was winking at her for her victory. Happily, she put Thorn back onto the floor and took the badge from the tray and held it in her hands.

"My first gym badge…oh my gosh…I can't believe this is happening to me! Whoo!" she cheered as she jumped up and down in glee. "Thanks so much for this battle!"

"Hey, it was fun. You're a pretty tough trainer you know."

"Luna, you did really great today. I never saw such determined battling from a trainer like you ever since I left Sinnoh," Brock said as he congratulated her. "Don't ever give up on your pokemon."

"Don't worry, I won't," she replied with a smile. "I never will.

Luna then saluted him with her first three fingers and strode on with her friends out of the gym. The sun was just about to touch the horizon as the day neared its end. Still smiling and laughing, Luna and her pokemon ran with their friends as they headed for the Pokemon Center, eager to celebrate their victory with a nice hot dinner.

_Man, that was exhausting…it took me an entire day to write this baby. Luna finally got her first gym badge! :D She's going to be having an easy time sleeping tonight…or is she? And after some constant ranting from Mewtwo, and a big headache…I'm finally going to fulfill his wish! :D Double yay! Anyway, stay tuned for Chapter 9._


	10. Nightmares and Visions

Chapter 9

**Luna: **Hey, Luna here. Yeah, I'm sure you're wondering where Auraninja is…well, she's currently on leave in Florida doing some kind of assignment so I kindly asked her if I could fill in her position as the narrator until she got back. So that's why I'm here . Anyway, she left a note here mentioning something about "Making sure …doesn't…lose…tem" …Gah! I can't read her scribbles!

**Mewtwo: **Is that story done yet!? What is taking you blasted human so long!?

**Luna: **Hey hey easy! I'm on it so cool your circuits or something!

**Mewtwo: ** (comes in through the door and sees Luna) Luna? What are you doing here?

**Luna: **I'm subbing for Auraninja while she's away on vacation. _Oh…that's what the note meant. Keep an eye on Mewtwo and make sure he doesn't explode…_

**Mewtwo: **Well if you're here, then finish this chapter. I've waited TOO long for this moment and my patience has decreased significantly. You may be new to this, but if it's not finished by the time I return this afternoon…!

**Luna: **Yeah yeah, I know. Just take a chill pill and meditate on some mountain or something. I'll get this done. (Mewtwo sighs and teleports out of the room) Gee, I didn't know Mewtwo was always so grumpy towards her. Anyway, she also told me to tell you guys that she doesn't own Pokemon or Sonic the Hedgehog, except for the characters she created. Enjoy! …Wait, wha?

Some mountain cave in the Kanto region

10:45 PM

_A certain pokemon was floating aimlessly in a dark void. Well, he could fly and all, but he was having little control on where he was going. Most of his dreams were like this after all. The 6 foot feline opened his eyes and saw that darkness around him; he could see his own body, but everywhere else was just swirling masses of shadows and chaos. Curious about the swirls of shadows, he stretched out his right paw and tried to grab touch it thinking that it was tangible. However, his paw just went through the clumps as if he were in a cloud in a storm. It didn't even feel like anything at all; not fog, not cotton, just light air._

"_Where am I? I've never been here before," Mewtwo said as he levitated further from his position. "This isn't like my other dreams…"_

_Curious about his surroundings, he flew further for a few more minutes to see if there was anything else he could find that would give him answers. But he found nothing. At his moment, he longed to be swimming through that body of water he had been dreaming of for so long. He longed to glide through that world where the kelp tendrils would always tickle him as he swam. There, he felt at peace, but here, it was all of chaos and no life at all. He felt the emotions of anger, hatred, and frustration swirling around him. He didn't know how it was possible, but he could sense the emotions in his surroundings when it came to his dreams._

_Suddenly, scream sounded in the distance. It was female he could tell, but she sounded like she was in terror. Mewtwo went to find the source of the scream but then he was stopped by an unseen force. With a grunt, he collided into what seemed to be like an invisible wall. Again and again, he tried to push himself through; he even used his psychic powers and some moves he knew to aid him. But the wall did not break and he could not go and proceed._

"_This barrier is holding me back! Even my strongest attacks won't destroy it!" he screamed as he rammed his body against the wall again._

_Mewtwo then put his paws together and began charging up a shadow ball the size of a basketball. It only took about 30 seconds to get it to the right size while a normal shadow ball would only take about 5-10 seconds or so. Once he had collected all the energy he needed, the pokemon backed away from the wall by a few feet and threw the attack at it. The attack exploded on contact and created smoke around Mewtwo and the area as a result. The smoke cleared and the wall was giving off ripples on the surface as if it were water. Even though this was progress, Mewtwo knew that the wall could not be destroyed._

"_All of my efforts were in vain…I am sorry for not coming to your aid in time," the pokemon sighed as he received thoughts of the human girl's demise from whatever sought to hurt her. He looked down in disappointment and was about to fly away from the area._

_Just then, sparkling stars of different colors appeared in the distance and streaked across the sky as if they were comets. Mewtwo stared at them and saw them pass over him until they disappeared behind him. He could count all of them, but he estimated about 12 or 13 or so. A pinging sound was heard from the same area ahead and he saw one tiny diamond-shaped pink star flying towards him. Unafraid, he extended his paws out and caught the star effortlessly. The star he caught didn't weigh much at all. It was as if he were holding a small stone. He brought the star closer to him and examined it with intent eyes. Indeed the star was bright and beautiful, but it was then that Mewtwo noticed it wasn't a star, but a small shard. _

"_What is this? I can feel energy emanating from it," he wondered as he twirled it around his three stubby fingers._

_Without warning, the shard gave off a bright light and exploded into a million pieces from his hands. The pieces scattered everywhere into the darkness and were never seen again. Blinded by the light, Mewtwo shielded eyes with his arms and was thrown ruthlessly from the area._

"_Argh!" he screamed in his mind via telepathy. After moments of being blown away, the mutant managed to stop himself and regained control over his levitation pattern. As he did, the light began to die down at a rapid pace. Soon, the entire area was drenched in darkness once more. Mewtwo uncovered his eyes and looked around for more of the shards, but he could not find any for they had disappeared during the flash._

_Then, he heard laughter; an evil maniacal laughter emanating from the direction of the shards' and the screams. Mewtwo knew this voice for it was from the person that had haunted his past from long ago. He began to tense up and shake rigidly. With rage building within him, blue aura began to glow and flow from his paws. However, Mewtwo tried to control his anger and did not want to let months of meditation and self-control training go to waste. Unfortunately, this was his nightmare, and sometimes in dreams, things don't go the way you want them to._

"_NO! Not him again!" the clone yelled as he curled into a fetal position and covered his ears. He tried his best to drown it out but the laughter just kept getting to him. At that moment, the anger was starting to cloud his mind and his purple amethyst eyes glowed blue with fury._

_The pokemon was about to unleash his rage onto the source, but was then stopped by the familiar scream from before. Mewtwo's eyes died down and his aura returned to normal. However, he was still pretty angry. Somewhat calmed down, he looked up and noticed a giant figure of the man known as Giovanni towering over him. But his entire figure was covered in shadows and his eyes glowed red instead of the normal yet heartless black. In front of him and the giant of a man was a young girl that created the scream. The girl was dressed in a black and red T-shirt with a blue denim skirt and boots and had short black hair. As she cringed in fear on the floor, Giovanni smiled and proceeded to grab the human. Right when the girl let out another scream, Mewtwo flew up to the man and unleashed a shadow ball upon him. The attack made contact to the hand and the Team Rocket boss with perfect precision and caused him to recoil in pain. The man clutched his palm and was screaming in pain. The clone then turned around and flew down to the cowering human who was covering her eyes with her arm. _

"_Are you alright?" Mewtwo asked her in a deep but calming voice and knelt down on one knee._

_The girl slowly uncovered her eyes and was just about to lower her arm but was just stopped short when they were caught and separated in a current of a sea of shadows. The two of them looked above them and saw the image of Giovanni transform into a giant blob of blackness. The human figure spread apart and evaporated into shades. The form may have seemingly melted in front of them, but it was the eyes that kept their shape and their terrifying red color. _

"_Who are you and what do you want!?" the girl hollered at it as she tried to fight the current._

_Mewtwo was about to say something as well but was sinking into the sea of oblivion. He fought to keep his head up but was sinking faster every second. It wasn't long until he let out a scream and darkness covered him. The girl was suffering the same way and she too fought her best to survive. Unfortunately, she didn't last very long and the clumps of energy devoured her as well in the blink of an eye._

Mewtwo awoke with a gasp. The pokemon could feel a cold chill as a calm wind blew into the cave entrance. He sat up from his lying position and wiped the sweat from his forehead. It was dark outside and only a few clouds covered the smile of a moon. The trees only silhouettes below and the lake glistened in the distance. Mewtwo looked out and used the moment to admire the scenery to calm himself down. He had surely chosen a good location for his cave home; a cavern some 15 feet from the ground.

Ever since the incident in Mt. Quena, Mewtwo had been traveling aimlessly around the world searching for his destiny in the world. He had been avoiding the eyes of trainers and helped pokemon on the way whenever he could. He still hated humans, but was still attempting to get used to them. But that wasn't the only thing he had to deal with. This was the first time he had a nightmare since after his escape from the lab where he was created.

"This dream…it's not like the others I've had before," he frowned as he turned away from the horizon and looked down at his three fingers.

"It shouldn't be as different as the others I've had. Surely it must have a meaning."

The pokemon thought for a moment more and shut his eyes. "What was the significance of those shards? How does this involve me? And my hated enemy; what does this have to do with him!?" He growled as he gritted his teeth together. Mewtwo slammed the stone ground of the cave he was in with his paw with a grunt.

"This dream poses many questions to me and I fear that this may be a vision with a message. I must find answers," Mewtwo sighed as he stood up from his position. "But where do I start looking?"

Suddenly, he thought of something. He remembered the image of the girl in his dream. She has some sort of role in this and is without a doubt tied in with his fate. The clone of Mew could clearly remember what the girl was dressed in and her outer appearance, but he could not get a good look at her face. Without an idea on what she looked like, Mewtwo could not get a fix on her energy signature. Everyone has a specific energy signature, but the best way for him to hone in on their position anywhere was for him to remember what they looked like. He couldn't understand why it worked that way but it was an ability he was born with, therefore he had to live with it.

"If I am to find answers to this vision, then I must leave this place. And the only lead I have is that human girl in my dream. But she could be anywhere…"

Mewtwo stood in front of the entrance and flew into the air. As he flew higher, the world below him shrunk in size and the wind chill a little cooler. "Still, I must find her. It seems that she may be the only one to provide me with clues." With that said, he flew off into the night in search of his suspect.

"Luna! Luna! Wake up!"

Adair shook Luna from her position on the bed, but the girl was still moving violently in her sleep. She was still suffering from her nightmare and was having trouble getting out of it. Everyone in the room was worried, including Shadow even though he tried not to show it on his face. Luna continued to moan and shake in her sleep and Adair continued to try to wake her up.

"Come on girl! Wake up!"

The older teen got even more worried as her efforts weren't working at all. At this point, she could only watch her friend suffer from the nightmare she was trapped in. Even the pokemon were looking pretty helpless. Pikachu was trembling by Luna's feet while Aquos sat by her head with a concerned look on his face.

Already frustrated with the situation, Shadow growled and walked up to Luna's bed and stood at her right side. He growled under his breath and looked at Aquos with a stern look.

"Aquos!" he called to the Vaporeon.

The pokemon switched his gaze from his ailing trainer to the boy who had caught his attention. Still looking concerned, he waited for what he had to say. Even with the situation at hand, he couldn't help but flick his tail up and down slightly as if he were swimming.

"I want you to use hydro pump on Luna," the boy ordered the pokemon with a small growl under his voice.

"Por?" Aquos quipped with confusion.

"What the? Shad you're not Aquos' trainer!" Adair argued at him.

"I know! But he's a water pokemon right?"

"…Okay but just this once!" she said as she lifted a finger up. "After this, nobody will mention this to her!"

Shadow nodded in agreement and then looked intently at Aquos. The water type hesitated to follow what he said considering that he wasn't his trainer. But he had to accept it. His best friend was in trouble. Aquos nodded and took a few steps back to perform his attack. Just then, Pikachu hopped up on the bed and stood on all fours next to the Vaporeon.

"No Pikachu, not this time. If you use your electric attacks on Luna with Aquos' hydro pump, you'll only end up hurting her," Shadow reasoned calmly.

"Pika…" the orange mouse frowned in disappointment.

"Aquos, do it now!" the trainer yelled while gripping his fists.

"VAPOR!" he cried as he opened his mouth and unleashed a strong volume of water.

The stream of water made contact with Luna's face and drowned her in it. The girl no longer screamed from the dream but was now under the pain of the volume of water. Immediately, she woke up and was seemingly drowning in the water attack.

"AH! Cold!" Luna screamed as she snapped up from her lying position.

"Vapor!" Aquos cried in joy as he hopped onto Luna to cuddle on her.

"Aquos…what happened?"

"Luna, you were having a nightmare. And a bad one at that," Adair told her as she put her hand on her shoulder.

"Sure was…thanks Aquos. I owe you one," Luna told her pokemon as she gave him a big hug.

"It wasn't just Aquos who did it. Thank Shad too," the older youth mentioned to her.

Luna was surprised by what Adair had said. Shad was arrogant alright, and a pain in the neck to deal with. But helping Luna wake from her nightmare? That hardly seemed normal to her. Speechless, she just looked at him with shock and eyes wide open. Shad just looked at her with indifference and sighed.

"Just get back to sleep," he said as if there was no emotion.

"Well gee, thanks for the help," Luna replied with distaste.

"Shad what the hell!? At least return the favor by saying 'You're welcome'!" Adair yelled at him.

The boy said nothing and walked on back to his cot. He climbed into the bed, pulled the covers over him and turned his light off.

"Grumpy-pants…" the Johto denizen grumbled as she got ready to sleep again.

Luna pulled the covers over her and turned to the window side, where that boy wouldn't be in her line of vision. Aquos soon crawled to the foot of the bed and curled up into his sleeping position. Not long after, the lights in the room turned off and the noise died down.

"_Stupid Shad_," the young trainer thought grumpily in her mind. "_Thinking he's a bigshot. I said 'thank you' and what did I get? 'Just get back to sleep'. That son of a Bidoof! I swear I should have nev…_"

Something made Luna stop thinking for a second. She couldn't explain it, but it felt as if something was calling to her. Searching for her. The sound was like a soft ding, and she doubted Adair and Shad could hear it, but it was there.

"What was that?" Luna said in a soft tone. She sat up from her bed and tried to figure out where it came from. She even stayed quiet for a few minutes to see if it would call again. But all she heard was Adair's soft snoring and the wind blowing through the window.

"_It's nothing I guess_." She lied back down onto the bed and slipped into dreamland once more.

Luna did not know it, but she had replied to that same call in her own way.

Mewtwo was flying over some town when he received that same sensation. The signal hit him like a charging Tauros. Mewtwo gasped and stopped in midair. The clouds below him still moved with the wind, covering and then partially covering the town below.

"This feeling….what is it?" Mewtwo looked out into the distance and wondered.

"It's as if something is calling to me…" He squinted and frowned some more.

"Yet another piece to this puzzle," the pokemon replied. He then continued forward and headed in the direction of that signal.

Little did he know that he was flying towards Pewter City.

The next morning...

Luna said nothing as she ate her breakfast. Even though she was hungry, the youth was bothered by the sensation she felt last night. What was calling her? Where did it come from? Why was it to her only and not to the others? And more importantly, who did it? Pondering these questions, she continued to eat her breakfast of eggs, toast, and bacon.

"You okay Luna?" The trainer turned her head to the right and saw Adair looking at her.

"You haven't said anything since we left the room."

"Yeah don't worry, I'm okay. I guess I'm still a little sleepy," she replied with a false smile. Adair lifted an eyebrow up and just looked at her.

"Seriously, I'm fine!"

Aquos and Pikachu stopped eating their pokemon food next to the table. They couldn't help but listen in on the conversation. Aquos was looking at his trainer with a worried look in his eyes while Pikachu did the same, only he had to swallow the food in his mouth first.

"Okay...is it about Shad?" Adair inquired.

The boy sitting across them stopped eating his meal and looked at Adair, then to Luna. He showed his usual "tough guy" attitude and look towards the girls. His eyes may look serious, but they also showed a hint of annoyance. At that statement, he stopped chewing his toast and swallowed. Pikachu then switched his gaze from Luna to his own trainer.

"...Sorry…about last night," was his reply as he looked at Luna.

Luna's eyes widened like marbles and stared at the boy. Pikachu and Aquos did the same and stared at him as well. He's weird and arrogant yes, but he's apologizing!? Luna tried to reply to that statement but couldn't say the right words. She was simply too stunned.

"…It's okay. It was late, we were tired. Sorry for worrying all of you."

"Hey at least you're okay," Adair smiled and took a bite out of her bacon.

Luna smiled as well and put a piece of her scrambled egg into her mouth. Now that that was settled, she felt a little better. The pokemon sighed and continued with their meal.

"You know…one thing still bugs me…" the youth spoke after she finished her scrambled eggs.

"What's that?" Adair replied.

"Where do you get your meat? Don't tell me it's made out of pokemon!?" Luna suddenly thought and stared at her breakfast plate.

"…Luna it seems to me that you've been living under a rock. Of course the food we have is made out of pokemon!" the trainer replied with a smile.

Luna stared at her with the same look she gave to Shad. Speaking of Shad, he had the same expression as well. Aquos and Pikachu were shocked at could not fathom as to what sort of body part from a fellow pokemon they were eating. Shadow kept his cool and calmly put his food down, but Luna, Aquos, and Pikachu started to look a little green. People eating pokemon!? This is definitely an outrage…and sickening.

"Please tell me you can't be serious. We're eating the very creatures that we coexist with in this world!? Crap I think I'm going to be sick…" Luna screamed and began to hyperventilate. It was fortunate that they were the only ones in the café because that would make the situation much more awkward. Aquos and Pikachu immediately lost their appetites and were just about to vomit until Adair started laughing.

"I can't believe you fell for that! You should have seen the looks on your faces! Shad you were like gaping and staring at me, you two were like about to vomit (she pointed at the Vaporeon and the Pikachu), and Luna you were the funniest! The food we're eating does not come from pokemon!" Adair laughed until she fell off her chair.

"You really thought that we'd be eating pokemon!?" She opened her eyes and was being stared down by everyone from the table. Apparently, they all stood up from their positions and were looking down upon her while she was laughing her butt off. And they did not look very happy. In fact, their eye colors were red with anger and they pretty much looked like demons in her eyes.

"Come on guys, it was a joke! It's a long story on where our food comes from! But seriously it's a joke!"

The group said nothing and they shouted her name (except for Aquos and Pikachu of course) before they began to beat the crap out of her. The fight was pretty much covered with a gigantic dust cloud so the minor audiences won't be bothered ;).

"Cant' you guys take a joke!?" Adair screamed as she was being pummeled by Shadow and Luna combined.

"Excuse me? I'm looking for a trainer named Adair?"

The trainers and the pokemon ceased the fighting and looked behind them to see Nurse Joy staring at them with her hands on her hips.

"Before I get to why I'm here, fighting is not permitted in this pokemon center!" she said with her sweet, yet stern tone.

"Long story…but it won't happen again," Shadow closed his eyes and grumbled.

"I second that statement," Luna followed.

"Vapor."

"Pika."

"_I guess it's better if unknown things in this world such as the food or other simple stuff like that are better left unsaid_," Luna thought and let the past go.

"Anyway…Adair, there is somebody who wants to see you," Nurse Joy said as she let her anger go.

"At this time?" the trainer sat up from the marble floor. "Who is it?"

Nurse Joy was about to answer that but was interrupted by footsteps behind her. The figure that was walking into the café was shrouded in shadows, so nobody could make out who he was. That was, until he stepped into the light. Luna and Shad had no idea who this guy was, but Adair knew him. His appearance was enough to make her gasp.

"Lucif?" She said with wide eyes and stood up from her sitting position.

"Long time no see cousin," the dark haired boy replied with a smile.

_Okay, I know it's been a while. But I had a lot of things to do this year. College is starting this fall and I had to keep my grades up. Plus, I had some social problems. So since it's summer vacation, I'll be writing a lot more chapters. I hope this one makes up for it. I was having doubts about Mewtwo's dream, but he was asking for it -_-. He was pretty impatient. Anyway, I'm sorry about my absence. _


	11. Lucif and the Incident at Mt Moon

Pokemon Rising Champions: Chapter 10

**Auraninja: **Hey guys sorry it took so long. If you're wondering about how long I was in Florida, I was there for about 2 weeks. I had college to deal with and other social stuff too.

**Mewtwo: **Took you long enough…

**Auraninja: **Aw…Mewtwo, are you saying you missed me? That's so sweet of you

**Mewtwo: **I didn't even say that! *grumbles under his breath* To be honest…I prefer Luna over you…

**Auraninja: **What was that!?

**Mewtwo: **Nothing.

**Auraninja: **Really? Because it sounded like you said something.

**Mewtwo: **Just get on with the story…

**Auraninja: **Say please

**Mewtwo: ***forms a shadow ball the size of a basketball and prepares to fire it at her*

**Auraninja: **Eeks! Alright alright alright! I don't own Pokemon or Sonic the Hedgehog except for the characters I created! Geez!

**Mewtwo: **That's better *smirks*

Mt. Moon

4:55 PM

Mt. Moon. An extraordinary place. A perfect place to go to when you want to camp out and watch the stars. The site teeming with various pokemon living in peace. The perfect spot to go to when you want to spend some time away from your desk and enjoy the outdoors. The sun was close to the end of the horizon, which turned the sky from blue to blazing orange. The forest around became dark due to the loss of light. People would admire the scenery at this time, but not for Luna and the gang because they're….preoccupied at the moment.

"Quick! Get to that cave!" she screamed as she sprinted down the dirt path.

Aquos ran next to her and occasionally fired his aurora beams to their attacker above them while making sure his trainer was safe. Shadow ran/partially skated behind them with Pikachu holding onto his left shoulder for dear life. The pokemon would perform some electric attacks to slow the aerial attacker down but not without putting his trainer in further danger. Pikachu closed his eyes and hoped that they would reach safety in time. Lucif and Adair ran close by behind them. Both were panting as they ran as fast as they could to the safety of the cave ahead.

Just then, the attacker flew in closer above the group and, with a roar, unleashed what most trainers would call a flamethrower attack. The stream of fire was about to make contact with the trainer known as Luna.

"Luna! Heads up!" Shadow shouted to the girl a few feet from him.

Luna turned her head and screamed as the fire was nearly upon her. She and Aquos barely dodged the attack by moving to the right. Thankfully, they didn't get hit. Everyone, well except Shadow who wasn't easily scared, were gasping in fear as they made their way to the cave ahead. Everyone made one final push as they were nearly at their destination.

"Just…a…little…more!" Luna gasped for air as they entire group was mere yards away from the mountain entrance.

Finally, using what strength she had left, the young trainer jumped into the safety of the dark tunnel. Everyone else ran inside and made it as well. Unfortunately, just when everything was going to be all right, the monster that chased them collided with the wall above the mouth of the entrance after it didn't look where it was going. This caused the entire wall above to rain countless boulders. The group screamed again as they dodged the falling boulders and ran further back into the cave. In front of them, their only way out was, within moments, covered by boulders. The impact of the boulders was also followed by dust which in no time, covered that portion of the cave. The light rapidly faded and the trainers were shrouded in darkness. Everyone was coughing as the dust slowly dissipated.

"Is everyone alright?" the one known as Adair asked as she coughed hard.

"Fine," Shadow announced in reply as he coughed again.

"Pika…" Pikachu then followed.

"Just peachy," Lucif said as well.

"Por!" Aquos the Vaporeon then said.

"Well I'm not! We're all trapped!" Luna screamed as she was trying to feel her way to the entrance by touching the walls.

Earlier that day…

Pewter City Pokemon Center

A few hours ago

"Lucif! I can't believe it!" Adair screamed in joy as she hugged the stranger in front of them. With her task done, Nurse Joy departed from the café and returned to whatever job she was doing.

Her companions and their partners could only stare in confusion as the two carried out their joyous reunion. He was a tall boy, being about the same height as Shad. He wore a green and gray short-sleeved polo shirt, light brown pants, and gray sneakers. His skin was slightly lighter than Adair's and his finger-length copper colored hair was parted to the left. He also wore brown, rectangular glasses. If it weren't for the boy revealing that he was Adair's cousin, any of them could have mistaken them as her handsome older brother.

"Okay okay! I missed you too Adair! You don't have to squeeze so hard!" Lucif laughed as his relative kept holding on to him.

"I'm sorry! But it's been so long since I've seen you!" Adair whined as she squeezed harder, making Lucif gasp for air.

"Oh sorry…" the older trainer released the teen who was then gasping for air.

"Hey! Aren't you forgetting something?" a stern voice sounded from behind Adair.

The trainer turned around and completely forgot about her friends who were standing there with confused looks. Shadow, the one who had attracted her attention, had his arms folded across his chest and stared at her intensely. Aquos and Pikachu only stared with wide eyes and Luna had her hands on her hips and one eyebrow was up.

"Oh right! Where are my manners?" the girl laughed sheepishly and scratched her head in embarrassment.

"Jumped off a cliff perhaps?" Shadow mumbled under his breath. Thankfully, nobody heard that remark, especially Luna who would have smacked him if she heard.

"Everyone! This is my cousin Lucif. He's from the Johto region like me," Adair announced with a grin as she gestured both her hands to her cousin.

"Hi," he replied as he waved his hand once.

"So you're Adair's cousin huh? Nice to meet you," Luna greeted after she walked up to him. She then offered her hand out as her form of hello. Likewise, he did the same thing. Luna firmly grasped his hand and shook it politely. "The name's Luna and this is my partner, Aquos."

She turned her head slightly to the pokemon who walked up and sat beside her. Aquos smiled and greeted him with a "Vapor!"

"Pleasure to meet you Luna," the trainer smiled.

For a few moments, silence took over as they both stared at each other. Lucif then looked at the boy with the spiky black hair with red highlights who turned his gaze to the left as the stranger stared. At that moment, a sweat drop fell on the side of Luna's cheek and her cheerful demeanor turned into a frustrated expression. She then turned around and reprimanded him.

"Well? Aren't you forgetting something?" Luna demanded to the loner. The boy turned his gaze away from the window back to the boy and sighed.

"Name's Shadow," the boy said gruffly.

"Shadow huh? That's…a nice name," Lucif hesitantly replied as he tried to form more words.

"Yeah but he prefers to be called Shad," the young trainer added with spunk in her voice. She closed her eyes, put her hands on her hips again and looked like a tough girl.

"NO I DO NOT! YOU CALL ME THAT OUT OF YOUR OWN WILL!" Shadow screamed in rage.

Luna closed her eyes and sighed in exasperation. She then rubbed her temples with her fingers and did her best to forget that moment. Shadow on the other hand kept screaming stuff that she kept filtering out. Pikachu quickly walked up to his trainer and tried to get his attention over his screaming. Aquos could not do anything but shake his head in disappointment as this kept going on. Adair palm faced in irritation and Lucif could only stare at the whole situation.

"Um…does this happen a lot?" he asked which was the first thing he thought of.

"Honestly? Yes. My advice? Get used to it," Adair kept her hand on her eyes and shook her head.

"Advice noted," he replied.

A few minutes later…

Luna, Shadow, Adair, Aquos and Pikachu were back at the table they were at earlier. After breaking up the argument, Adair invited Lucif to some breakfast. Lucif agreed and at this time, he was finishing up the last of his breakfast sandwich. Lucif sat next to Adair to her left while Shadow and Luna sat across from them. As he was doing that, Luna was gently stroking Aquos on the head, which the Vaporeon liked so much that he curled up on the floor and closed his eyes. Shad was looking away again and his Pikachu was napping on his lap. Adair had her folded hands propped under her chin and watched her cousin finished her last bite.

"So Lucif, what brings you here to the Kanto region?" the goggle wearing trainer asked after the newcomer swallowed the last of the sandwich.

The elder trainer picked up the napkin to his right and wiped away the crumbs on his mouth. After wiping, he placed it back to wear it was and replied to his cousin. "Well first off, I just wanted to check up on you Adair." He then looked at her and smiled. "It's been a while you know. 2 years I believe?"

"Sure has," the 18 year old remarked.

"And second, I just needed a breather. You know, travel around," the boy replied.

"So Lucif…where's Minun? He's always with you," Adair asked her cousin of his partner pokemon. Nobody at the table, save for Lucif himself, knew that the mention of that name brought stress into the atmosphere.

"Minun...is doing okay. He's with the other pokemon at Professor Elm's lab. He got tired of traveling and needed a break," Lucif replied with a hint of sadness.

At that moment, Lucif thought back to the day when his beloved partner could no longer battle; the day when his own anger and arrogance got the best of him.

_Somewhere in the Hoenn region_

_Last month_

_Lucif was on a mission. A mission that he volunteered to perform. He had been working as an agent for the group known as the Pokemon G-men for nearly two years. Normally, rookies would go on missions with a small group of agents. Lucif, however, went solo as a way to prove to the organization that he could do it without any help. Most agents are enlisted when they're about twenty years old, but Lucif was a prodigy. He proved his skills in the field as a spy and as a strong trainer during his first day. The organization saw potential and enlisted him right after that first training day, when he was age 16. The objective of this mission…eliminate the last remnant of Team Aqua and destroy whatever plan they had in store._

_Before attending the mission, Lucif was told that Team Aqua had disbanded a few years back after a failed attempt of world domination. However, this status was debunked when his headquarters received news that a small remnant of Team Aqua was on the rise. It was theorized that this group had gone into hiding until they were ready to strike. During his time of reconnaissance, Lucif had discovered Team Aqua's attempts of drawing out Kyogre with a machine specifically made for water pokemon. This machine not only drew out the pokemon, but when calibrated correctly, it can also send out a signal to the pokemon and bend it to the user's will. Lucif spent weeks thwarting Team Aqua's attempts and rescuing the pokemon they've been testing on, but every failure brought them one step closer to perfecting their goal. No matter what, Lucif had to stop them._

_Lucif and his partner-in-crime Minun stood drenched on a concrete dock at the edge of a city. The green and brown jumpsuit he wore may have kept him warm, but it did not protect him against the weather. The weather was horrible; lightning struck everywhere, lighting up the sky in streaks of light that followed with loud crashes of thunder. The waves crashed uncontrollably everywhere, even making contact with the dock every few seconds. The rain fell like bullets from a gun. The weather may appear to be an intimidation, but that was the least of Lucif and his pokemon's worries. A few feet in front of them was a large circular hovercraft floating over the water containing a machine in the form of an elaborate silver signal dish that was attached to a hexagonal base. It was like one of those lasers one would see in an enemy alien aircraft on a Saturday cartoon show. Except, there were no aliens. The controller of this machine stood next to it in the hover craft. He was dressed in a black jacket, black pants, and wore a blue bandana on his head that contained a circular white symbol. He stood there menacingly and folded his arms across his chest._

"_It's too late boy!" the man sneered as he lifted one of his arms. In his gloved hand was a black remote with a long antenna and a large button in the middle that could be rotated to increase the frequency. "Once I activate this machine and turn the signal to the maximum, Kyogre will rise from the sea and he will be ours!"_

"_Sorry Archie! I'm not going to let that happen!" the boy screamed after going into a crouched position to weather out a small gust of wind._

"_Really? Is that so?" Archie chuckled. _

_He lifted his thumb and turned the button on the remote slightly. At that moment, the machine emitted a signal that only pokemon could hear. Lucif then looked forward into the horizon. Up ahead, battling the waves as they came to the direction of the signal, were small gray dots that grew larger with each passing second. Lucif knew that these dots were water pokemon, disturbed from the depths and swimming into the arms of a madman._

"_With this machine in my possession, the sea will be ours and Team Aqua will rise again!" Archie laughed maniacally after finishing that statement._

_The young agent growled and clenched his fists. "Minun, destroy that remote with iron tail!"_

_At that statement, the blue and yellow pokemon went on all fours and quickly ran up to the hovercraft in a few seconds. The pokemon jumped forward and smacked the remote off of the now surprised Team Aqua leader with a shining white tail. Upon impact, the remote shattered and the pieces fell into the water. Minun nimbly landed back on the dock on all fours, determination still etched on its face and the minus tail raised high. Archie knelt on his knees and crawled close to the edge of the hovercraft._

"_NO! You fool! Don't you see what you've done!?" Archie hollered as he looked from the boy and his pokemon then back at the machine. _

_Lucif changed his gaze from his enemy to the machine and noticed that something was wrong. Blue electrical sparks were emitting from everywhere around the machine. The incoming water type pokemon may have escaped from the thrall of the signal frequency and dove back underwater to escape the storm, but those who are around the machine are far from safe._

"_Without that remote, the machine will go out of control!" he retorted at the boy who was standing there helplessly._

"_At least I stopped you! Team Aqua is finished!" Lucif argued with a swipe of his arm._

"_Fool…you may have stopped the rebirth of Team Aqua. But know this…where there is good, there is evil. Team Aqua may have failed in their quest to conquer the seas, but there will always be another to take their place!"_

"_Then I will be there to stop them!" the young agent retorted._

_Archie growled angrily at that remark. But then, he thought of something he should have said before. If brute force did not stop this boy, then what about something of the mind? He had heard stories of another group that used pokemon for another purpose. So why not use it to his advantage now? The Team Aqua leader smiled wickedly and spoke to the trainer._

"_You? A young boy? Pathetic! You can perform whatever feats you like, but have you ever thought about your own pokemon? You send them out into battle and they get hurt in the process! Yet when the ordeal is done, you get all the glory! Do they get any credit!?" _

_Lucif clenched his teeth and did not answer._

"_You may think of pokemon as friends when in reality they are just tools! People only control pokemon for the fun of battles, winning money, furthering our goals!"_

"_NO! You're wrong! Pokemon are our friends! We share the same goals! Clearly you have lost sight of that because all you want is to use them for your own gain!" Lucif retorted with determination at the fallen leader._

"_Yes but how do they know that? You send them out mindlessly and they get hurt! How does that make them feel? Face it, they're nothing but slaves!"_

_Slaves. That was a word Lucif did not want to hear. At that statement, rage began to build up in the boy's body. He clenched his teeth harder and screamed in rage towards the sky. The rain began to fall harder and more lighting struck in all directions. But Lucif did not care. All he cared about was proving this villain wrong._

"_Minun! Destroy that machine with thunder!" Lucif ordered in rage as he pointed his index finger at the machine which was emitting a lot more sparks._

"_Mi!" the pokemon cried as it jumped from where it was and grabbed onto one of the beam supporters on the machine. The little blue and yellow mouse then closed its eyes and unleashed an extremely strong thunder attack with another cry which surrounded the machine. At that moment, the machine should have exploded, but it remained there intact._

"_Ha! Try as you might boy! Team Aqua had put a lot of TLC in this baby! They even made it resistant to electrical attacks!" Archie laughed as he crawled off of the hovercraft and landed on the dock with a grunt._

"_It's not working…Minun isn't strong enough to destroy a machine like this," Lucif thought._

"_Minun, hit it with a stronger thunder attack!"_

_The pokemon cried in reply and the aura around the creature grew larger in intensity. The electrical field around the machine grew stronger as well, but it still did not explode. Suddenly, a lightning strike fell from above and hit the small pokemon. The light blinded Lucif for a moment and when he regained his vision, he saw that his partner was suffering from the still oncoming blast. However, blinded by his own rage, he continued his mission of destroying the machine._

"_Minun! Use the power from that thunderbolt and end this once and for all!"_

"_MI!" it shouted as the thunder aura around its body and the machine was increased tenfold. Moments later, the machine exploded with a boom and a cloud of smoke that engulfed the area. Lucif shielded his face with his arm and closed his eyes. The black smoke cleared after a few minutes of lingering. Slowly, the smoke left the area. Lucif opened his eyes and noticed that not only did the smoke leave, but the storm around the harbor was quieting down. The rain fell as gentle drops, the waves calmed down, and the lightning ceased. In front of him lay his pokemon which had taken Archie's place. Archie must have fled during the explosion, meaning that there was a chance that he was still alive. Lucif gasped in horror when he saw Minun. His pokemon was lying there; covered in bruises, stray blue sparks flying out of the little body, and motionless._

"_Minun!" he screamed, running to his little partner and leaving splashes of water in his trail._

_He knelt down on both knees and touched his partner with his partially gloved hands. Some of the sparks made contact with his skin and gave him small shocks, but he did not care. His best friend wasn't moving. Lucif picked up Minun and held him close to his chest._

"_Minun…I'm so sorry! I shouldn't have pushed you too hard!" Lucif said as the tears ran uncontrollably down his cheeks._

"_Mi…nun…" the little pokemon replied weakly. Lucif gasped and was relieved to hear that little cry. With that, all Lucif could do was hold on to Minun, never letting go._

"_What have I done?..."_

_The next few hours were a blur to Lucif. The police and the Pokemon G-Men arrived right after the explosion. The entire harbor was filled with them. Both groups searched the entire harbor and the city, but they found no sign of Archie or the other fallen members of Team Aqua. Both Lucif and Minun were taken to the city's pokemon center to be treated. Lucif escaped with minor bruises, but Minun was in a lot worse shape. He could never forget the image of his partner lying in that capsule chamber covered with wires and breathing through a clear oxygen mask. The copper-haired boy stood there, watching his friend breathing rapidly and occasionally, emitting some stray sparks. Lucif could only remember what the nurse told him a few minutes earlier._

"_The damage from the lightning and the machine explosion was too much for Minun. The rain even made things worse too. Most electric pokemon could withstand that much power; absorbing the lightning, bracing the explosion and the rain, but it was too much for Minun. Thankfully, it will be back on its feet in no time," Nurse Joy told him with a sad smile. "Minun will survive, but the battle itself has done a number on the parts that allow electrical discharge and also will leave it with some mental trauma. It pains me to inform you that your partner Minun will never battle again."_

_Lucif never forgot what Nurse Joy had told him. He walked away in sadness to the direction of his room. Since then, he left the Pokemon G-Men and never attended any more missions. He never even told any of his friends of the ordeal he went through in fear of reliving that event. This entire ordeal should have proved to himself that he could do things on his own. Instead, it left him scarred for life._

Present day…

"Lucif? You okay?" Adair spoke with concern.

Lucif fell out of his trance and snapped back into reality. He may have been remembering some bad memories, but he didn't realize that he had been staring out into the distance for a minute or so. He looked at Luna who sat across from him and then to Adair and gave a slight chuckle.

"Yeah. I'm fine. I was just thinking out something is all," he reassured them.

"Oh well, okay then. So…you're just traveling aimlessly around the world right?" the girl wearing the Jack Skellington shirt asked.

"Yes. I have been for the past few weeks," Lucif replied with some confusion.

"So…I was wondering," Luna stammered as she tried to form what she was going to say into words. "If you're not doing anything right now, maybe you'd like to come with us?"

"What?" the boy quickly leaned to the back cushion of his chair in surprise.

"Yeah that's a great idea! Lucif, we haven't spoken in a long time. We've got loads to catch up on! And besides, the more the merrier," Adair agreed with glee and gave him a wink. Aquos and Pikachu even got up from their positions and cried in agreement.

Lucif thought for a moment about the offer in silence. He had been traveling solo for a while with no goal. Yet he also had doubts about it. He hadn't fully recovered from his ordeal and the fear of reliving it. Then again, from this reunion, he has potentially gained some new friends. They weren't like the bosses he used to work for that only cared about bringing down enemy organizations. These people cared about him. So what has he got to lose?

"I guess that isn't such a bad idea," the ex-agent responded with a smirk.

"All right!" Adair jumped in joy from her seat. She raised both her fists in the air as a sign of excitement. Luna smiled and stayed quiet the entire time. As for Shadow…well, he stayed in the same position as before. The 15 year old turned her head to the silent boy next to her. He hadn't said anything ever since they sat back down. So she decided to break the silence.

"Hey Shad, you're okay with this right?" Luna questioned with an eyebrow up.

The ultimate life form looked at her in silence and stared. Why she keeps pestering him with questions and her attitude he didn't know. With some slight reluctance and few emotions, he sighed.

"Yeah I guess he can come with us." Luna did not reply and gave him a smile.

"So…where are you three headed?" Lucif asked in curiosity. Adair ceased her jumping and quieted down. She then sat back into her chair and responded.

"We're headed to Cerulean City. Luna is going for her second gym badge. Tenth in my case."

"Cerulean City? That's about a two day walk from here," the newcomer said with slight surprise.

"Oh. That's not so bad," Luna shrugged her shoulders at that statement.

"If we leave now, we can camp out at Mt. Moon for the night and then arrive at our destination by lunchtime tomorrow," Lucif suggested with an index finger up.

"That's not a bad plan," Luna agreed and clapped her hands together.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Are we just going to sit here and waste more time? Let's go!" Adair cheered.

Everyone at the table, including Shadow nodded in agreement. Lucif traveled to the lobby and waited for his friends as they made their way back to their rooms to pack. They may be preparing to travel to another city, but to him, traveling to a mountain would be like a camping trip. However, none of them knew of the danger that lies ahead.

The forest outside of Mt. Moon

A few hours later

"Butch! Watch where you're going!" the woman known as Cassidy snarled. "Quit bumping into me!"

"Hey it's not my fault this forest is so dense!" Butch grumbled as he pushed a branch up and walked behind his partner.

Cassidy scoffed. "Look, the sooner we find that Salamence, the sooner we can leave."

It's been days since Butch and Cassidy tried to steal the pokemon (for the umpteenth time…) from Professor Oak's lab in Pallet Town. They still bore some of the bruises from their encounter with the rebellious trainers. Lately, they've been having some bad luck with their missions. But not this time. This time, they're on a new mission.

"If the rumors from those kids in Viridian City are correct, then there must be a Salamence living around here," the agent with long ponytails reassured herself and her partner.

"This pokemon had better be worth it! We've been in this forest for days!" Butch growled as he pushed another branch away with his other hand. Cassidy walked onward and released her branch. The green haired man did not see the tree limb coming which as a result, hit him squarely in the face. He groaned in both pain and frustration and fell on the ground.

Cassidy ignored her partner and continued her way through the woods. She walked through a couple of bushes in front of her and parted some more branches away. After doing so, the Team Rocket agent looked ahead and noticed that two more branches blocked her way. Only this time, these branches were covering sunlight. Cassidy released the two and parted the ones in front of her, only to be partially blinded by sunlight. The grunt winced in annoyance and gave a minute or so for her vision to return. When it did, she saw that she was staring at a clearing. There was a large pond in the middle that was surrounded by grass with the trees acting as a barrier to this sanctuary. Then, she heard a soft growl. Cassidy turned her attention to her right and saw a giant creature making its way out of the woods and towards the pond. This thing was huge; it was about eight feet in length with huge red wings and blue skin. The most notable feature she noticed were the spikes jutting out at both sides of its head. This was indeed what they were looking for, and it came here for a drink.

"Butch! You can stop whining now," she told her partner as he stumbled toward to her side. He had obtained some minor scratches and a red bruise on his face from trying to get to where she was.

"This had better be…whoa," Butch was stopped in mid-sentence when he saw the dragon Cassidy was looking at.

The green-haired agent wickedly smiled. "Looks like trudging through these woods has paid off. You got the electric bracer?"

Cassidy put her Rocket engraved bag down and unzipped the largest pocket. Her gloved hand reached into its contents and pulled out what appeared to be a cross between a gun, a collar, and a leash.

"Right here partner. Proceed with stage one," she told Butch who within moments pulled out a red and white pokeball from his right pocket. The man stumbled out of the bushes and quickly ran out in the clearing to face the dragon.

"Finally! We found you!" he yelled at the creature.

The Salamence stopped drinking from the pond and reared its extended neck up. In the process, water dripped from its mouth and the lower part of its head down to the pond and the neck. The dragon type looked at the human dressed in red, black, and white. This forest doesn't get a lot of visitors, especially humans. Nevertheless, this human looked dangerous judging from his demeanor. The Salamence uttered a low growl and positioned its body so that it would properly face the intruder.

"I don't know how you arrived here, but one thing's for sure. You'll soon be an addition to Team Rocket's collection!" Butch laughed as he hurled the pokeball he held into the air. At the peak of its ascent, the ball opened releasing a white ray that descended to the ground. The ray disappeared and in its place was a large furry brown rat with huge buck teeth.

"Raticate!" the pokemon growled as it reared its head before staring back at the dragon.

"Now for stage two…"

"Raticate, use super fang!" the Rocket agent commanded.

In response, the pokemon's fangs grew longer and glowed white. It then ran on all fours to the watchful dragon. The dragon type snorted and braced itself for the attack by opening its mouth, baring the sharp fangs. The rat, quick on its feet, jumped and embedded its own white fangs into the back of its opponent's neck. The dragon screamed in pain and thrashed its head about in an attempt to shake off the rat.

Butch let out a short laugh. "Now use crunch!"

The pokemon released that portion of the neck and jumped up. The dragon let out short gasps and winced at the pain in the back of its neck. It closed its eyes tight and tried to ignore it, a mistake that allowed the smaller intruder to use to its advantage. The Raticate's fangs shrunk to their normal size and lost its white glow. The rat descended down again and, with its wide open maw, bit hard into a lower part of the neck. The dragon roared in pain and like before, shook its neck again in response.

"Just a little more…" Butch said under his breath. "Now use crunch once again at the base of its neck!"

"Raticate!" the pokemon cried as it released the neck and jumped to the back of the dragon. The mammal pokemon opened its jaws again and dug its fangs deep into the blue flesh. The dragon roared louder this time and shook violently. In response to this annoying rat, the Salamence opened its slanted eyes and turned its head to its back, facing the pokemon. It roared in defiance and attracted the Raticate's attention. The brown mammal stopped biting and looked up to see an angry dragon staring it down. With a roar, the giant bit onto the rat and removed it from its back. The Raticate squirmed wildly in its captor's jaws but the dragon ignored that. The blue and red dragon quickly lowered its neck and head to its right and threw the rat in the direction of the lone Rocket agent. Butch, although a little shocked by the action, kept his position and his gaze.

"Cassidy! Now!" he yelled at his partner. The woman sprinted out of the bushes and went into a kneeling position in front of Butch. She lifted the silver contraption in front of her like a soldier would in battle. The woman growled and pressed the trigger on the gun/leash collar hybrid. In that instant, the collar extended thanks to the attached cord and latched on to the dragon's left leg. The Salamence tugged at the rope in response in an attempt to break the hold. Cassidy only held on to her weapon and pulled.

"Do it now!" Butch yelled.

"You don't have to tell me!" the woman retorted. She pressed on the black button on the left side of the gun with her free hand. The machine released a blue aura around the rope which quickly traveled to the collar portion and the trapped Salamence. The dragon roared again in pain as the electric aura surrounded its body. It jerked violently and roared continuously.

"Now stage three: capture," Butch said as he pulled out an empty pokeball from his pocket.

He was about to hurl the pokeball at the dragon when something stopped him. The dragon stopped its jerking and opened its fierce eyes. The eyes were not of the usual white color, but were now red. The color of rage. Cassidy and Butch did not know it since they were inexperienced with dragon types, but they have just set this creature on a rampage. When the move outrage is used or triggered, the user becomes stronger and faster, but at the same time, becomes confused and attacks everything in its path. The dragon let out a roar and bit onto the cord in front of it. With a strong jerk to the side, it threw both the weapon and the Rocket agent into the pond. In the process, the collar released the leg which left Cassidy with nothing to hold on to. Her fall into the pond broke the silence in the water.

"Oh sh-," Butch complained but was interrupted when he was engulfed in a stream of fire. He was only covered in heat for a second and when the fire regressed, his entire body was covered with temporary dark burns. Butch coughed out smoke and collapsed on the ground.

The Raticate recovered from behind Butch and ran towards the dragon, ready to fight. Unfortunately, that too was interrupted when the Salamence flew up to the mammal and slashed it away with its claws. The pokemon landed somewhere in the forest and was out of the line of sight. The dragon then flew up and away towards the east, still in the thrall of outrage. The pokemon continued in that direction and saw a dirt path up ahead. It could even make out the faint forms of a group of travelers, two of which were pokemon. It roared in rage and continued with its assault.

At the same time…

Route 3

Pikachu and Aquos stopped walking as a roar echoed to their right. They faced that direction and stared into the woods as if something were about to pop up. Thanks to their superior hearing, they could tell that it was a pokemon, and not a happy one at that. At first they thought it was nothing until the sound came again. Instinctively, Pikachu went on all fours and charged up the electricity in his red pouches. Aquos went into that same position, minus the electricity. Luna noticed their positions and walked up to them. When she arrived, she heard the same roar they heard before.

"Uh guys, did you hear something?" Luna said and faced the forest.

"Luna you may be just imagining things," Adair said. "Maybe you just need some rest."

At that moment, another roar erupted in that same direction. This time, everyone stopped in their tracks. They slowly turned their heads to the right, facing the woods. The sun was close to the horizon so there wasn't much light to support their vision. However, there was no need to stare into the woods any longer. The source of those roars flew over the trees and was flying still behind them. The dragon stared at them with blood red eyes and uttered another roar of rage.

"It's a Salamence!" Luna hollered as she trembled in fear.

"We can see that! And judging by the looks of it, it doesn't look too happy to see us…" Shadow added to her obvious statement.

The Vaporeon and the Pikachu faced each other and nodded. Pikachu then ran up to the rear of the caravan and stood a good distance away from the dragon. Aquos on the other hand remained by Luna's side to protect them from the front. This dragon may be menacing, but their primary objective was to protect their friends. Pikachu emitted small sparks from his cheeks, a sign that he was ready for battle while Aquos went into his battle stance.

"We could try fighting it," Shadow suggested as he kept staring into the creature's eyes.

"No that's a bad idea," Lucif argued. "Doing so would only make Salamence even angrier."

"Well then what do you have in mind? I'm sure we'd love to hear it!" the ultimate life form argued in frustration while staring at the dragon type.

"I say we back up slowly and run," the ex-agent said while keeping his teeth from chattering.

"What!?" Shadow retorted in shock.

"Look, we're losing light and we have a terrain disadvantage. Mt. Moon isn't that much farther from here. If we run, we can regroup and lose it from there," Lucif said with a hint of determination.

Shadow couldn't believe what he just heard. Him? Run from a fight? That's entirely unheard of. He was the ultimate life form! He could take on anything, even a dragon! And he's being asked to run!? True to his own beliefs, he ignored the suggestion.

"Pikachu, use thunderbolt!" the red-highlighted boy commanded his 'shiny' Pikachu.

"Pika…chu!" the pokemon cried as he unleashed an electric aura from around his body toward the dragon. In a split second, the zap made contact with the Salamence, making it cringe with shocks. After a few seconds, the electric pokemon stopped his attack. With a shake of its spiked head, the Salamence ignored the pain and stared at the group with even more anger. To show its emotion, it emitted a louder roar. Everyone covered their ears for that duration until the dragon stopped. The Salamence then breathed a flamethrower that was headed straight for Pikachu. Instinctively, the small pokemon jumped back and dodged the stream of fire.

"Nice job Shad! You just made it even madder!" Luna yelled at the boy who stubbornly attacked the flying pokemon.

"Now will we go with my plan?" Lucif asked earnestly.

"Yeah…maybe running isn't such a bad idea," Shadow reluctantly agreed as he barely dodged another flamethrower that nearly struck him on his right.

"I second that motion," Adair added quickly.

"Agreed. NOW RUN!" Luna yelled and started off in a sprint.

Aquos jumped when his trainer announced that and sprinted to keep up with her. Adair and Lucif followed close behind, screaming as well. Shadow gestured Pikachu to climb up on his shoulder, which the pokemon happily obliged. He started off with a sprint which then turned into a partial skate thanks to his shoes. Everyone saw the mountain up ahead which was a good distance at about a mile away or so. The Salamence…furious that his opponents are fleeing, chased them from the air and breathed countless flamethrowers on them.

Which brings us to where we were before…

_And…cliffhanger time. I know, everyone hates cliffhangers. I do too. The next part of this chapter will continue in the next one…when it's done. Now to answer some questions. One, I'm in college now so my time will be taken up by homework, classes, and studying. Two, I'm also working on another fanfic at the same time. And three, Aquos the Vaporeon is not related to the Sonic universe in any way! He's a denizen of the Pokemon World. Who he is and where he came from…I cannot answer because that will be answered later in the story. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and Chapter 11 will be up soon so stay tuned…_


	12. Lunar Dance

_Previously on Pokemon Rising Champions…_

_Luna and the gang meet Adair's cousin Lucif at the Pewter City Pokemon Center. He doesn't tell them why he's travelling solo. However, through some explained background courtesy of the author, Lucif had been travelling aimlessly because of an ordeal that involved his now battle-handicapped partner Minun. After some consideration, Luna decides to invite him to join them on their adventures, whom the newcomer happily agreed. Meanwhile, Butch and Cassidy have been tracking a Salamence that had apparently taken residence in the Mt. Moon area, which did not go as well as they caused it to go on a furious rampage. This also caused it to have a run in with our heroes who have made the situation even worse…courtesy of Shadow. Now the group have been chased into the mountain and are trapped inside. Will they find a way out?_

Inside Mt. Moon

May 26, 2010

6:03 PM

"Flaafy, use flash," Adair ordered her pink sheep pokemon whom she brought out of its pokeball moments ago.

"Flaaa," it cried as the blue orb on its striped tail lit up that portion of the tunnel in a second with a bright blue.

Adair sighed in relief when she saw that everyone was okay. Aquos sat tail-curled by a kneeling Luna who was digging something out of her opened blue backpack near the now-covered entrance. Lucif was doing the same a few feet to her left while Shad was inspecting the boulders up front, most likely trying to find a weak spot in the wall. Pikachu ran up to the calm sheep pokemon on all fours and stopped next to it, waiting for what to do next since they were trapped.

"There you are," the tomboyish trainer exclaimed. She pulled out a medium-sized black flashlight and switched it on, illuminating the left wall of the cavern.

"Luna, shine that light onto my bag," Lucif told her nearby.

The novice trainer lowered the light a little bit and shined it onto a crouched Lucif and the tan-colored backpack he carried. Seconds came and he too pulled out his own flashlight and turned it on, illuminating the cave with three sources of light.

"Great. We're trapped. Now what?" Adair said in a suggestive tone.

"Hold on, give me a sec," Luna replied with excitement.

She had completely forgotten about the handheld Pokegear that Tracey had given her before the start of her journey. The trainer flipped the cover like a cellphone and pressed the orange button near the hinge. The screen showed the Silph Co. logo which then switched to the main menu screen. In Luna's standards, the graphics on this Pokegear were similar to the cellphone she had before arriving in the pokemon world, but the object made up for its decent graphics with its features. Afterwards, the trainer pressed a button on the keypad, causing the screen to switch to a pathway of the Kanto region. This map could show the user the cities, the routes, and the terrain just by pressing the arrows on the keypad.

"_I've always wanted a new phone for Christmas…but this will have to do,"_ Luna thought while examining the map on her screen.

"Well? Did you a find a way out of here?" Shadow turned to the kneeling trainer and asked impatiently.

"According to the map, Mt. Moon is directly between Pewter City and Cerulean City. Meaning that trainers need to pass through here in order to get to the next city. Which also means that where there's an entrance, there's always an exit," Luna noted as she closed her "cellphone".

"That's good," Adair said with a smile. "So that means we keep traveling through the mountain until we reach the exit."

"Right," the younger trainer got up from her kneeling position and nodded at her. "So let's move."

With her flashlight in hand, Luna walked ahead into the darkness like a leader, passing the two electric pokemon and Adair. Aquos got up from his seated position and hurried along to catch up with his partner. Not long after, Adair, Pikachu, Flaafy, Shadow and Lucif followed. The darkness of the tunnel shied away as the light from the caravan lighted the way.

Route 3

About an hour later

Butch and Cassidy stumbled out of the forest line with a grunt, both lying face first and sprawled on the ground. The two Rocket grunts have been through a lot of disappointing situations…being scorched, electrocuted, sent into space, all that jazz. At this point, it was safe to say it was becoming a sort of routine for them. Butch lifted his head up with a groan.

"Why does this always happen to us?" the green haired agent complained.

"Either the pokemon are getting tougher to catch…or we need think about our plans more carefully…" Cassidy lifted her now dirt covered face up and replied groggily.

Just then, a roar sounded from the other part of the forest in front of them. After being thrown viciously into a pond and being scorched in the face, Butch and Cassidy recognized it to be the Salamence they tried to capture. Both yelped in surprise and fear and quickly crawled backwards into the forest bush. Thankfully for them, the sun was almost gone so visibility into the forest was low. Sure enough, the dragon type flew over the forest edge about twenty meters from them. The two agents couldn't tell if it was still furious or not so they stayed in the bush. The dragon made a slight turn to the left and followed the dirt path, making its way towards Mt. Moon. Butch and Cassidy saw this and slowly got out from their hiding place.

"Come on, we're following it," Cassidy ordered as she started off in a sprint.

Butch was taken by surprise by his partner's action and started off with a slow run. He knew that ever since they first attended the training academy, Cassidy was always faster on than him on foot.

"Hey!" he cried while trying to catch up to her. "Wait up!"

Deep inside Mt. Moon

The trainers walked onward deeper into the mountain. By now, they realized that the path was actually a one way route going up. And when a path goes up, there is another going down. Meaning that they are hiking to the summit. Sometimes they would encounter a couple of turns but other than that, the hike was pretty straightforward. The tunnel was about six feet, which was wide enough to not restrict them into a single file and about eight feet tall. The walls around them ranged from dry to dripping wet, a result of the occasional cracks in the ceiling. There were even a few natural shafts on the ceiling, which most likely served as a passage for fresh air and an exit for pokemon. On and on they walked in silence, waiting for whatever would appear in the darkness ahead.

"So…Shadow," Lucif started and broke the silence. He had been walking behind the gothic minstrel the entire time. The ex-agent responded again while staring at the different colored Pikachu hanging on his right shoulder. "I noticed you've got a shiny Pikachu."

"Yeah. So?" the humanized ultimate life form replied and walked around a large boulder on his right.

"Well…I've never seen a shiny pokemon before. They're extremely rare to find you know," he informed. Lucif passed around the same boulder and walked next to Shadow. He lifted his hand up and scratched the back of one of Pikachu's ears. The pokemon cooed in response to the gentle touches.

"I guess so…," Shadow replied while hiding a hint of irritation.

"You're really lucky to have one," Lucif commented again. He stopped petting the pokemon and faced forward again. Shadow didn't know it but Luna was listening to their conversation. This time, Adair, Flaafy, and Aquos were up front, meaning that Luna was the second person in the line. She felt proud that her work disguising his Pikachu at the Pewter City mall was paying off.

"Yeah well…he wasn't always like that," the black haired boy mumbled. Luna widened her eyes at that remark and was about to say something. She was even thinking about smacking the boy behind the head.

"Wait, what?" Lucif asked when he thought he heard that peculiar statement.

Shadow stared at the girl in front of him. He was imagining her turning around and staring at him with the same eyes the dragon they encountered earlier had. He kept his cool on the outside but deep down, he shuddered at the thought.

"Nothing," Shadow quickly said right after.

Luna quietly sighed in relief when he said that. She then focused on the objective of finding a way out of the mountain and ignored them. In his mind, Shadow imagined the red in her eyes disappearing, appeased by his reply. Lucif then switched his gaze from the "shiny" pokemon to the black zipped guitar case that was slung on the opposite side of his shoulder like a one-strap bag.

"I see you're a musician," Lucif commented again.

"What?" the minstrel blinked his eyes and stopped staring at Luna.

"The guitar on your back."

"Oh. Yeah…occasionally I play."

"That's cool," Lucif smiled. There was a minute of silence between them until Shadow spoke.

"Pikachu plays one too," Shadow started quickly while not looking at the curious trainer.

"Really!? A pokemon playing a musical instrument? That's awesome!" Lucif jumped in shock and excitement.

"It's not that big of a deal…" the hot head closed his eyes and tried to hide the embarrassment and irritation.

"Well it is in my book! Maybe after we get out of here, you could perform for us?" the ex-agent requested with both his fists close to his chest.

Shadow immediately answered with little emotion. "No."

"Aw, come on. Please?"

"No," he said in a slightly louder tone.

"Pretty please?"

Shadow turned his attention to the newcomer beside him. Lucif kept on smiling and stayed quiet, a sign that he was waiting for an answer. Shadow was slightly creeped out by this expression and wanted to step the other way slowly.

"_So this is what most celebrities feel like when they're around fans…"_ Shadow thought to himself. He bit his lip and stared down at the ground.

"All right. If the baby wants his bottle…" he said after letting out a reluctant sigh.

"Awesome!" Lucif cheered. Shadow groaned softly and wanted to smack his forehead out of annoyance.

"_So…a summary of everything that's happened to me so far. First I defeat a biolizard whose explosion sends me spiraling to my doom. Then I wake up in this strange world in this inferior form and without ANY of my powers. I get a couple of traveling companions and one of them has an attitude. I piss off a dragon and I've got an annoying fan,"_ Shadow thought in annoyance. _"Great…story of my life in this new world."_

The past half hour was met with another period of silence. Except for the occasional appearance/scurrying of some wild pokemon, the sound of shoes meeting with the floor, and the sounds of dripping water onto the floor, nobody in the group spoke or made a sound. Lucif was getting tired to start a conversation with the girls, Shadow didn't even feel like talking at all, Pikachu was taking a nap, and the girls with the awake pokemon were focused on getting out of the tunnel. However, this period of silence ended when Adair stopped abruptly. At the same time, Pikachu woke up when his ears twitched slightly.

"Hold up," the goggle-wearing trainer said with a hand straight up. Everyone else stopped walking and looked at both the leader of the line and the darkness ahead.

"What? What is it?" Luna curiously asked her.

"I thought I heard something," she replied, leaning forward a little and pointing the flashlight at every part of the darkness in front of her.

Luna walked next to Adair and did the same thing. Lucif and Shadow walked closer to Luna and peered into the darkness. Everyone stayed quiet, hoping to hear whatever sound Adair heard earlier. They didn't have to wait long when that sound came back. It was a soft sound at first, but it got louder as the source got closer. They all braced themselves for what was approaching, perhaps another dangerous pokemon. However, all were surprised to see a frightened Clefa come into view. The little fairy pokemon bawled and screamed like a little baby. Shadow couldn't see very well but Lucif only had to peer next to Luna's head to get a view. Adair, knelt down to the crying pokemon, lifted it up and held it close to her chest in a hug. Aquos and Flaafy got closer to Adair and the crying pokemon, hoping to comfort the baby in any way they can.

"Aw…shh…shh…it's okay. What's the matter little one?" Adair asked the pokemon who lifted its tiny head up to look at the trainer.

"Are you lost? Did you lose your family or something?" she put her opened-gloved hand on the star pokemon and stroked its little head.

"Clefa!" Clefa cried again and dug its face/body into her chest. It then pointed its tiny finger/arm into the darkness.

The entire group diverted their attention from the pokemon back to the deeper part of the tunnel. Another sound was coming. This time, it was a group of the same sounds in the form of chirps. Like before, the sounds got louder as they got closer to them…and they were coming fast. Then, from within the shadows, a horde of Zubats and Golbats came charging at them.

"HIT THE DECK!" Luna screamed and quickly laid flat on the ground and closed her eyes tight. She then lifted both her arms and covered the back of her head.

Lucif did not lie on the ground, but rather crouched down and put his face and arms against the wall. Shadow did the same, except his back and arms were flat against the wall…which unfortunately for him was wet due to water leaking from the surface above. Adair remained where she was, only she was crouched closer to the ground. As for the pokemon, they were crouched a little and stood there with her eyes closed and heads turned away, braving the storm of oncoming blue bats. The pokemon sped over them with a series of loud chirps and cries. About thirty seconds passed and the crowd disappeared. The cries gradually faded and the bats were soon out of there line of hearing. The trainers lifted their heads up and sighed in unison.

"Whew…that was close," the Jack Skellington fan said after wiping a drop of sweat from her forehead.

The boys in the back let out some slight groans as they slowly got up from their positions. Adair's cousin looked behind him to make sure the pokemon were gone while Shadow was inspecting the back of his jacket and arms, which were a little wet. Luna rose slowly, kneeling on her knees and hands at first, and then supported herself up by gripping the wall with her right hand.

"Couldn't agree more…" Lucif said in agreement and looked forward again. Everyone then focused their attention back to Adair, who was hushing and comforting the still crying Clefa.

"It's okay…the bat pokemon are gone. You're safe now," Adair comforted the little pokemon while stroking its head again.

"Cle…fa…" Clefa with a slight pause and a small lift of its body. Adair felt that and knew that as a sniffle.

"How about this? We'll bring you home," the kneeling trainer consoled and suggested. The tiny star pokemon stopped its crying and looked up to its temporary guardian.

"We?" Shadow questioned in surprise.

"Yes, Shad. WE are going to help this Clefa," Luna turned her head slightly behind her and stared at him.

"What happened to 'getting out of here'?" he asked in an arguable tone.

Luna closed her eyes and shook her head. Apparently, he wasn't reading her mind. "Look, we'll get it home and THEN we'll find a way out of here."

Shadow looked away at the wall to avoid her strict gaze and uttered a small 'tsk'. He then folded his arms and replied.

"Fine. We'll bring the baby home…"

Adair was listening the whole time and smiled when the reluctant boy in the back agreed.

"You see? We'll get you back to your friends," she then paused and thought about the missing detail. "Which we would need to know where they are." Right when she said that, a sweat drop fell down the side of her cheek.

"Cle! Clefa!" the pokemon cried in excitement.

It hopped out of Adair's lap and landed about a foot away from her. The Clefa jumped a couple more times before turning around to where it came from. It then pointed its tiny left arm in that direction.

"Okay, that answers that question. Show us the way Clefa," Luna said and lifted her flashlight in that direction. The small pokemon hopped away and the trainers and partner pokemon quickly followed behind.

For the next few minutes, the entire caravan climbed higher up the mountain while keeping up with the baby pokemon. Surprisingly, it was pretty fast considering the round body stature it had. They passed various boulders, rock formations, puddles, and even other pokemon on their hike. The group even encountered some split paths where occasionally, the tiny pokemon would walk into a dead end alone but then would run crying to Adair because more bat pokemon would come flying out, scaring the group…again. Obviously to the travelers, dead ends with a group of scary pokemon aren't the way to go. Every time that happened, Shadow would palm face his forehead in annoyance. Nevertheless, they pushed forward. Some time after the second bat encounter, the Clefa jumped in excitement and hurried further into the tunnel.

"Hey! I think Clefa found something!" Adair noted then looked at Luna who stood beside her.

"A way out perhaps?" Luna guessed with a smile.

"Well there's one way to find out," said Lucif who stopped just behind his cousin.

The group hurried through the passage and found the little pokemon with a shine of their flashlights/flash move. The pokemon was jumping and spinning in its place with glee. Curiously, Adair looked at the pokemon first but then looked to her right. Her eyes widened when she saw what the pokemon was excited about.

"Uh…guys? Are you seeing what I'm seeing?"

Adair's head was blocking the way so she was peering from both of her sides. Fortunately, she got a good view of what she was looking at. The boys however, were in the back of the line so they were trying to catch a glimpse up ahead. To the top right of the path, past a few boulders and a couple of steep slopes, was a rocky corridor with light inside. The only thing the trainers thought at this sight…their way out.

"Well I am and my eyes never lie!" Luna laughed and ran up the steep rockway.

Adair was taken by surprise and ran as well to keep up with her friend. Soon, everyone else, including Clefa, were climbing up the rockway. A few rocks blocked the path but that didn't stop the travelers. All they did was pass around them. The path was also dry so lucky for them, there wasn't any mud to make the route difficult.

With one last gigantic step, Luna overcame perhaps the steepest part of the route and passed into the light. However, when she did, she stopped in her tracks and her smile turned into a surprised gasp. Her friends arrived as well and had the same surprised expression. The last to arrive was Clefa and it was still jumping for joy.

"This isn't the way out. That tubby fat ball of a pokemon lied to us!" Shadow growled and then scoffed. The pokemon stopped jumping and looked up at the boy to its left.

"Well one thing's for sure, we did get out of that tunnel," Lucif exhaled while looking around the area.

This place was a hidden sanctuary. The mountain on the outside looked like a giant pointed hill, but a place like this was completely new. The area was large, about the size of a football field. The walls on both sides of the mountain sloped down from a point and then up slightly, giving the shapes of crescent moons. The ground they stood on was not gravel or hard stone, but rather soft grass. There was a cluster of trees off to the left that seemed closely packed next to the wall. To the left, just a few meters from them, was a small pond that was surrounded by a few boulders. There were even a few medium sized trees nearby that place. Compared to the cold and wet temperature inside the mountain, the atmosphere in the sanctuary was just right. However the most notable features were the amount of diamonds in the sky and the palm sized gibbous moon.

"Wow, this place is beautiful," Luna said while admiring the scenery. "I would kill to camp out in a place like this."

"Actually, that's not a bad idea. We've been traveling the entire day. Might as well rest up here," Lucif suggested with an index finger up.

"Sweet!" the Jack Skellington fan cheered and took the bag off of her bag.

Just then, a group of noises sounded over where the pond was. They were small, slightly high pitched, and very similar to Clefa's cry. However there was something more mature about the sound. Adair switched her gaze from the sky to the pond. There, coming out from behind the boulders, were Clefairys.

"Clefa! Clefa! Clefa!" the pokemon cried in excitement as it hopped over to where its friends were.

One of the winged fairy pokemon stopped hopping towards the pond and turned around. At first, its face showed curiosity, but then turned into joy when the Clefa hugged the pokemon. The Clefairy was overjoyed by this and attracted the rest of the troupe with a cry. Not long after, the entire troupe was clustered around the two pokemon and jumping for joy.

"Mission accomplished," Adair said with a smile and in a sing songy tone.

"Got that right. Now what do you say we get our sleeping bags out and make camp?" Luna suggested which kinda ruined the moment.

Adair frowned at the statement. "Gee Luna, we were supposed to be basking in the glory. Did you have to ruin the moment?"

"Sorry. Just saying," the trainer lifted both arms up in an apologetic gesture.

Sure enough, they all got ready to make camp. Adair returned Flaafy back into its pokeball before rolling out her sleeping bag. Lucif went to the edge of the wooded area near the pond and gathered a stack of dry wood. It didn't take him that long to gather the stack since that cluster wasn't that large. In no time, they were all lying down on their sleeping bags around the newly made campfire. Aquos and Pikachu sat in between Luna and Shadow while the two cousins sat across from them.

Adair didn't even know it before, but her cousin was a pretty good cook. Within fifteen minutes or so, he was giving out a bowl of nice thick stew to his friends. Even Shadow was impressed…even though he didn't show any emotion. All he did to show any appreciation was scoop every last bunch into his mouth with his spoon without talking. While Lucif was giving the servings, Luna took out one of the bowls she had in her bag and poured an entire can of pokemon food, which she served to her partner Aquos. Shadow gave his Pikachu his dinner as well…thanks to some "support" from Luna. The dinner got even better when the fairy pokemon that gathered around the pond started hopping and spinning in a lunatic dance. The Clefairys spun, flipped, hopped, and even sang in perfect coordination.

"This is great. We get a dinner AND a show," Luna said with some stew in her mouth. Like her friends, except Shadow, she had been watching the moon ritual since it started a few minutes ago. "It's like nature's showing its beautiful side of the night."

"I guess we should count ourselves lucky that we're watching this," the trainer known as Lucif said. He put the spoon into his bowl and scooped another bit of the stew.

More minutes passed as they watched the pokemon show. However, all good shows had an end to them. Right when the stew and the pokemon food were all eaten up, the Clefa they met earlier hopped on over to two Clefairys over to the north side. The fairy pokemon then held their arms/hands together and leaned out to their respective sides. When they did that, their tiny friend hopped into the middle and with some support from the older pokemon, performed a big jump to the southern part of the pond. The girls gasped in shock when it did that but let out a sigh of relief when it landed nimbly into the palms of two other Clefairys in the same position. The Clefa performed that jump again, only this time landing on the Clefairys in the west side and finally to the east, the side closest to the trainers. The show ended when the Clefa hopped off, spun in unison with its friends and cried cheerfully. Luna, Adair, Lucif, Aquos, and Pikachu applauded/cheered (Aquos only cheered) at the end. The performing pokemon bowed during the extended applause and walked/hopped into the trees nearby.

"That was great!" Adair said as she flexed her arms up.

"Sure was," Lucif agreed. "I haven't seen a show this great since the time we visited Nimbasa City in the Unova region a few years back."

"Wow. So…you guys visited the Unova region," Luna said with amazement. "What's it like?"

Adair scratched her head and closed her eyes. "Well…um…"

"It's like Kanto and Johto. Only, some of the cities are different. Castelia City is the largest city there because of all the skyscrapers. It's got a harbor too. Then there's Nimbasa City which is famous for its subway battles, the various sport stadiums, the amusement park, and the Pokemon Musical. But those are just two cities in Unova. There are a lot more," Adair's cousin explained with whatever information he could remember.

"Wow, kind of sounds like New York City," the dimensional girl realized. At the same time, Shadow turned his attention from the fire to the girl sitting next to him. He had heard of the city before but he never knew that a human in this world would know of it. Silently, he let the conversation continue.

"New York City? I've never heard of that place before," Adair wondered at the name.

Luna jumped a little when she said that. The girl had completely forgotten that none of her friends knew that she was from another dimension. Not only that, but they would probably never look or treat her the same if they found out. Or worse, if anybody found out. Luna gulped and spoke to them with some nervousness.

"Oh! Yeah! New York City is not here. I mean…not in this region. It's very far away," Luna stammered while trying to put it the best way she could.

"Oh, so…you're from that city?" Adair guessed in wonder.

"No no…um…my home's in a town. Which is…also…very far from here," Luna chuckled nervously. She put one of her arms behind her head and scratched the bottom of her neck.

"So I take it you're not from the Kanto region?" the ex-agent asked the shy girl.

"Yeah…I'm not from around here…"

The girl from another dimension put her hand down and looked at the two pokemon next to her. Aquos and Pikachu were sleeping away, most likely did so after their little feast. Luna thought the image of them sleeping now was cute because her Vaporeon lay with his paws in while his tail was curled around the sleeping electric pokemon. The girl smiled at the moment and then looked into the flames in the pit.

"_Yeah…I'm definitely not from around here,"_ she thought to herself.

Shadow just kept staring at Luna. He pondered about what the girl just said about where she came from. Listening to this conversation has added more questions about who she was and where she came from.

"_There's something off about Luna. She just said the name of a city that doesn't even exist in this world,"_ Shadow pondered. At that thought, realization hit him like a lightning bolt through a wall. _"Wait…just from listening to this conversation…Does this mean…she's from another dimension like me? If so, is she from mine?"_

His red eyes widened at that realization. For the first time since he had arrived in this world, he has found another like him. Shadow wasn't stupid. He knew that Luna's excuses were just a pathetic cover-up.

"_If she is possibly from my dimension…is she like me?" _Shadow wondered. The only other beings like himself that he knew were his allies in his dimension. Unlike his friends, who were from the planet Mobius, he was created on planet Earth. Sometimes they travel from their home planet to Earth, wherever the danger is, or so he was told. _"It's too early to tell. It looks like I'll have to wait this out…"_

Shadow stared into the flames. _"But one thing's for sure…"_ the ultimate life form watched the flames dance in all directions. _"I'm not alone."_ His thinking period was then interrupted with another question from Lucif.

"So if you're from another region. Do you miss home?" Lucif questioned again.

Luna hesitated to answer that question. She was thinking back to the day when she had that fight with her mom and ran away from home. When she arrived in the pokemon world, she didn't care that she was in an entirely new place. In fact, she considers this world to be her home now because she now had the one thing she never had in her world: friends.

"Yeah, I guess I do," she lied. That smile she once had immediately turned into a frown at that statement.

"Aw…I'm sorry," Adair said in an apologetic tone. "I miss home too. Especially my parents. My mom cried when she saw me leave on my pokemon journey."

"Hey Adair, don't forget. I was there too," Lucif added.

"Oh yeah. He was there too," the other cousin said with her normal voice tone. At the same time, she was pointing her thumb out to her cousin.

Both cousins laughed and started to share some memories with each other. Luna sadly stared at them, wishing she had a sibling/relative like that. She never really knew the other members of her family. They weren't that close, except for her grandparents who treated her a lot better than her mother. But they were dead now and she was all alone.

"_These two are really lucky to have each other…they still have a family and a home to return to. Their parents are close together…while mine are divorced. I hardly remember my own father…he left when I was just a little kid,"_ Luna said to herself as she remembered the image of her parents fighting and her dad leaving her forever.

"_Since that day, Mom acted like what others would call a 'Tiger Mom'. She tried to mold me into her own image when everyone is their own person. She never showed me any respect, she disapproved of anything I did, and worst of all…she never showed me any love,"_ Luna thought as she kept staring at the two cousins in front of her who were now laughing hard at some memory. Her mood then changed from sadness to resolve.

_But no more. Now I'm in a new world. A new home with lots of new friends." _

The two cousins stopped their laughing and switched their attention from Luna to a very quiet Shadow. Lucif noticed that he appeared mesmerized by the dancing flames.

"So Shadow. What about you? Do you miss your family?" Lucif asked. Shadow broke out of his trance and saw that Adair and Lucif were watching him curiously.

Shadow's heart skipped a beat when he heard that word. Immediately, he thought about his family some fifty years ago. Back to the time when his life was perfect. He didn't let the others see that he was close to crying. There were many things he wanted to say about his family. He wanted to tell them that the only two people that cared and loved him were dead. Shot dead by the government all because they had a connection with him. The memories he had with them and their final moments have haunted him to this day. And he's had to deal with the pain nearly every day.

"Yeah. Very much," Shadow replied looking away to the right. He then sighed and put his hand on the guitar case next to him. Since it was black, nobody could even see that it was there. After a moment of silence, he flipped open the top and lifted his guitar out of the case.

"Time to lighten the mood…" the gothic minstrel said as he tuned his guitar.

"What? Shadow, we're not even out of this mountain," Lucif noted. He remembered the deal he had with Shadow during their hike here.

"I'm doing it because I feel like it. Don't make me change my mind," he warned. Right when he said that, he finished his tuning and let the silence take over the atmosphere.

Adair and Lucif looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders. They've already had a performance by a troupe of fairy pokemon. Why not have a second from a guitar player tonight? They sat in silence and awaited for the minstrel to begin his song.

Shadow closed his eyes and let his fingers stroke the strings and ride the neck. The song opened with a soft tune which then transformed into something upbeat and joyous. No one should know this song because this is something he composed himself. If Luna were from his dimension, she wouldn't even know it either. He's glad he did not tell the others about this song because he's just playing a melody he's thinking about in his head. Shadow's playing by ear. Lucif sat there smiling while his cousin swayed from side to side with the rhythm. His audience wasn't a big crowd, but at least it was an audience.

Luna started to get drowsy after the first couple of minutes. She liked the song, but she was exhausted from the day they had. Back in her dimension, she did play the piano and the flute for quite some time. And as a fellow musician herself, she knew better than to doze off when someone else was performing. It would be rude to do so. So, she stayed awake for the remainder of the song.

Shadow's last minute song ended the way it had begun; a slow and soft tune. At the end, he stayed still for a moment before placing his guitar flat on his lap. The audience clapped for the performance. Lucif, Adair, and even Luna were impressed. He looked at all three of them and then down at the pokemon next to him. Of course, they were sound asleep. But that was okay with him.

"Shad, if you were a celebrity, I'd ask for your autograph," Adair said and stopped clapping.

"Whoo! That was great!" Lucif commented. "Might I request an encore?"

Shadow looked at him with an eyebrow up and sighed. "Alright…but this is the last song for tonight."

Luna smirked at that statement. "Well you go ahead and do that. I'm going to bed. Thanks for the song."

"Alright. Goodnight Luna," Adair said.

"And sleep tight," Lucif added.

Shadow did not greet her but she assumed that he was from that look he gave her. It was a small nod, but it was better than nothing. Luna climbed into the purple sleeping bag she purchased back in Pewter City. At first she was lying on her back facing the stars, but then her position shifted to facing the campfire. She allowed the gentle music from the guitar and the dancing flames pull her into dreamland.

Later that night…

The Clefa the travelers had met earlier was awakened by a groan. After that night's moon dance, Clefa couldn't remember falling asleep in this part of the summit. It must have been really exhausted to have walked here for the night. Normally, it would sleep with the other members of its family in the other side. Clefa sat up from its lying position and looked around. Considering its size, the trees looked like giant pokemon covering only some light of the moon. Tentatively, it walked around, looking for the sound that had awakened it. However, it didn't have to wait long for the sound to come back.

"Cle?" the tiny pokemon cried in curiosity. Clefa turned its tiny pink head to the left. Now it was certain there was something there.

The pokemon walked in that direction. Never in its whole life did it venture into this part of the sanctuary alone. Still, the sound it kept hearing sounded desperate, like it was in pain. After passing a few trees and bushes, Clefa came upon a cave that it didn't even know existed here. The entrance was large, probably about seven feet tall. Like the tunnels inside the mountain, it had the same rocky, wet texture and it was dark further in.

Clefa stood close to the edge of the cave and peered inside. Right when it did, the same groan sounded again. Whatever was making that sound was definitely in this cave. Clefa squinted its small beady eyes. There was something in here, something large. The star shaped pokemon walked/hopped carefully inside. When it came closer by a few feet, the little pokemon gasped at what was taking residence in the cave.

"Cle-!" Clefa stifled a cry, not wanting to attract attention. The pokemon was massive. The shadows may have covered the pokemon's true appearance, but Clefa could make out bright blue skin and red wings. The creature that the little pokemon was staring at was a Salamence.

Fortunately for Clefa, the dragon type does not even know of its presence. The wide red wings on its back draped over both sides of its body. Clefa crept closer to investigate, but when it did, its tiny leg accidentally moved a pebble. The rock clattered softly towards the dragon, but a soft sound like that was enough for it to wake up.

The dragon opened its seemingly angry eye. Its slanted pupil looking all around the entrance. That was when Salamence noticed the little pokemon standing there, trembling. Salamence lifted its spiked head and looked down at the frightened pokemon.

Clefa was about to run in anticipation of the dragon coming after it. Clefa waited, but nothing happened. Instead, the great dragon uttered a low growl which was then followed by pained groan. Clefa stopped shaking and walked closer to the pokemon. As it did, Salamence turned its gaze from the star creature to its left leg. Clefa followed the dragon's observation and found a dark burn mark that encompassed the lower portion of the leg like a ring. The huge pokemon tried to move its leg but only winced in pain after a few inches. Clefa felt sorry for what the dragon was going through and wanted to help it. But then, Clefa thought about the trainers that rested close by. Surely one of them could help this creature.

"Clefa! Clefa!" it jumped in excitement. Clefa then gestured Salamence to stay in the cave with its arm. After doing so, the little pokemon hopped/ran out of the cave, hurrying along to the sleeping trainers.

Salamence was curious about what Clefa was doing. Obviously the tiny pokemon was trying to help. But how was it going to do it? The dragon could not move because of its injury. It was basically defenseless. The pokemon could not do anything but place its faith in the little star pokemon and wait.

_And that is the end of the second part of the Mt. Moon camping trip. I wanted to squeeze everything the rest of the time in Mt. Moon in this chapter but it was already getting too long. The next chapter will conclude this little camping trip…and with a whole lot of action! Also, a reminder that this story is still Generation 4 (Diamond and Pearl and Heartgold and Soulsilver). Meaning that the pokemon in Generation 4 are mainly in this region. Yes there were some mentions of Unova, but none of the Generation 5 pokemon will appear here. Another thing is the story encompasses events from the anime and the games combined. So Ash is in his journey in Unova and Team Rocket is working in Kanjoh (Kanto and Johto) and Unova. The timeline will clear up as the story progresses. Anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter and Chapter 12 will be up soon. _


	13. Growing Trust

Previously on Pokemon Rising Champions…

_Luna and the gang continue their trek through Mt. Moon. Many things happened along the way: Shadow gains a fan to his annoyance, they meet a Clefa that is being chased by a group of Zubats and Golbats, and they arrive at a hidden sanctuary in Mt. Moon. As a form of thanks of returning Clefa back to its family, the Clefairys performed a special moon dance for them while the trainers ate their dinner. Afterwards, the group spend a little quality time around the campfire in the form of getting to know about each other. Also, Shadow finds out that Luna is from another dimension too. Finally, Clefa wanders into the wooded area at the left side of the summit and encounters the ailing Salamence from earlier. Will our heroes be able to leave Mt. Moon? And will Salamence ever leave that cave?_

Mt. Moon Summit

Luna was awakened from a soft tapping on her shoulder. Her eyes slowly opened and her vision was slightly blurred. She blinked a couple more times until her sight cleared. Her sleeping position had changed from sleeping on the side to lying on her back, staring up at the night sky. The night was mostly clear, save for a few small clouds. However, she could still see the billions of stars decorating the heavens.

The girl shivered a little bit. It was a little colder than prior nights. Even though summer was coming, the heat still hadn't fully arrived yet. She had also noticed that her sleeping bag had not been covering her upper arms. Luna brought the blanket up to her shoulders and rubbed her arms in an up and down motion to warm them up. She then looked to her right to see who had been tapping her shoulder. If it were not for the moon that still illuminated the atmosphere, she would not be staring into the worried face of Clefa.

"Clefa?" Luna said groggily. The novice trainer gradually sat up, still facing the pokemon and covered in her thick blanket. "What's up?"

At that moment, Aquos opened his eyes and uttered a short yawn. After doing so, he stared up at his awake trainer and the star pokemon that stood at her side.

"Vapor?" Aquos quietly sounded, making sure not to wake anyone else up.

"Cle. Clefa. Clefa," the baby pokemon said and gestured its tiny arms further out. Luna and Aquos followed the direction and found that Clefa was pointing towards the mini-forest in the left.

"What's the matter?" the trainer said while stifling a yawn.

Clefa bounced in that direction by a few feet. It then turned around to face the campsite while constantly bouncing. As it bounced, it kept pointing into the woods.

Luna stared at the pokemon for a momen. She rubbed both of her eyes with her hands and climbed out of her sleeping bag. Slowly, the girl stood up, stretched her arms together in front of her, and then looked down at her partner.

"Come on Aquos. Let's follow it," she said as she walked toward the bouncing baby. Aquos got up, tail not close to him anymore, and followed his partner.

When the duo came close to Clefa, the pokemon bounced away again and went straight into the cluster of trees. Luna and Aquos left the spotlight of the moon and entered into the dimly lit wooded area. For the next couple of minutes, they kept close to Clefa while lifting branches, stray twigs, and parting bushes. Then, after parting two bushes and passing a few more trees, they caught sight of the hidden cave. Clefa bounded for the giant hole in the wall and hopped continuously at the entrance.

"Clefa. Clefa," the pokemon cried as it turned to the duo. Clefa was waving both of its tiny arms up and down while jumping.

"You want us to go in there?" Luna asked suspiciously.

Clefa stopped jumping and nodded. "Cle."

Both trainer and pokemon looked at each other and then at the dark cave. Cautiously, they strode forward. When they passed around Clefa, the tiny pokemon hopped forward until it was in the front again. Luna and Aquos looked around the walls of the cave. The texture and appearance were that same as the tunnel they had walked through before. Then, Aquos looked forward and peered into the darkness. The pokemon crouched down and little and emitted a soft growl.

"Va…" he growled defensively.

Luna glanced at her partner in confusion. "Aquos, what is it?"

Just then, something up ahead let out a snort. Luna glanced back to the front. The girl squinted her eyes a little and saw what her Vaporeon was growling at. She let out a gasp and took a few steps back until she was inches behind Aquos. Right at the end of the cave, lying down and staring at them, was Salamence.

"Salamence…" Luna said in realization. Both trainer mustered up their courage and prepared for battle. However, they were stopped when Clefa turned around and hopped a few times.

"Clefa!" Clefa cried and shook its body/head after it stopped jumping.

The trainer and pokemon stared in confusion as they witnessed the baby pokemon stroll over to the dragon. Clefa then stood next to the left foreleg and pointed at it. Luna changed her attention from Salamence to the foreleg. There, wrapped around the leg like a ring, was a burn mark. Aquos looked at the leg and saw the sight as well.

"You're hurt…" the girl said, widening her eyes. The red and blue dragon moved the leg a little closer to its body but winced in pain. Salamence shut its ferocious eyes tight while it embraced the sting.

"No…don't move it," Luna told the creature. As she stared at the burn, she thought about what happened yesterday, when Salamence was on a rampage.

"_Maybe whoever or whatever left that caused it to go on a rampage?"_

Salamence lifted its spiked head. The dragon made eye contact with Luna. It stared intently and kept that gaze for moments. To Luna, it was like those eyes were staring straight into her soul. She took in a deep breath and slowly exhaled afterwards.

"Salamence…did someone do this to you?" she asked.

The dragon kept its gaze and nodded gravely. Luna looked down a little and thought for a moment. Aquos however, was still crouched in his ready stance. The pokemon turned his frilled head up to her and awaited whatever command she would say. But, to his surprise, none came.

"Aquos," she said with confidence. "I want you to stay here with Clefa and keep Salamence company."

"Por?" the Vaporeon stepped to the right a little and looked like he was about to sit down in shock.

"Don't worry, I'll be back in a couple of minutes," she said with reassurance. The girl looked back at the dragon and retained that same confidence. "Salamence, whatever you do, don't move that leg."

The trainer then turned around and ran out of the cave. When she did, Aquos strode over to where Salamence was and sat next to the injured leg. Clefa stayed where it was and sat down too. The dragon however, stared at the outside, waiting for the trainer to return. After its ordeal earlier, Salamence lost some trust with humans. After all, two humans attempted to capture it for their own personal gain. That small hint of distrust was still there. The bruises on its neck had already healed some time ago, but the leg has not. Salamence would attack the girl if she turned back on her promise, but what choice did it have? It can't move.

Then, that distrust faded when the image of the black haired woman came running back into the cave. Her boots impacted the ground hard and echoed throughout the cave. On her back was a blue backpack and in her arms was a good amount of firewood. Both the Vaporeon and the Clefa cried together as the girl got closer. When she was just a couple of feet from the dragon, she knelt down and placed the wood in a circular arrangement. After that, the girl put the bag down next to her and unzipped the back pocket. The girl was still searching through her bag, most likely looking for matches, but she did not have to. The dragon type inhaled and breathed a thin stream of fire onto the wood. Luna yelped in surprise and landed on her rump, surprised at the unexpected move. Within seconds, the darkness of the cave receded and was replaced by the light of the campfire.

"Um…" Luna let out a nervous chuckle. "Thanks."

The dragon looked away and snorted. It then closed its eyes, not wanting to stare at the human. Luna scooted back a little while still looking at the dragon. She grabbed her bag by one of the straps, walked a couple of steps to where the smaller pokemon were, placed her bag down, and squatted.

"Okay…let's see," she said.

Now that there was light, Luna got a better look at the wound. The ring was not colored black, but more of a dark blue and purple like a bruise. She also saw that some parts were darker in color than the others. She also looked around the leg and noticed that the worst parts of the burn were only in the front. The other thing she noticed was that there was dirt on the wound, probably because it made contact with the ground at some point. The girl nodded silently and searched through her bag. She then took out three objects: one, the bowl that Aquos and Pikachu ate from earlier (Lucif cleaned it up after dinner), the second a white washcloth, and the third being a hyper potion.

Luna set the silver bowl down next to her. "Aquos, please fill this up," she politely told her partner pokemon. Afterwards, he walked next to the fire and sat down, observing his trainer.

Aquos got close to the bowl and used a very weak hydro pump. Fresh water streamed out of the pokemon's mouth like a small geyser. Within a few seconds, the bowl was about halfway filled with the ice cold water. Aquos stopped the stream when the water was inches from the rim.

Luna set the potion down and turned to where the bowl was. She placed the washcloth into the bowl until it was soaked. Afterwards, she took it out with both hands and squeezed the water out. The sound of rapidly dripping water attracted the dragon's attention. Salamence opened its eyes and turned its great head to the trainer. It observed the girl twisting the cloth in her hands and squeezing the remaining water out. Then, she turned back to the creature's leg. Salamence uttered a soft roar as a way of saying 'what are you doing?'

"It's okay. I'm just going to clean it up," Luna reassured. She clumped the cloth into a ball and gently dabbed at the wound.

"_I'm glad Tracey taught me how to treat pokemon wounds before I left on my journey,"_ she thought in satisfaction. For the next few minutes, she continued to clean away the dirt.

The texture of the cloth was slightly irritating to Salamence. It felt rough like tiny rocks. However, it assumed that it was probably because of the wounds sensitivity. The pattern continued for the next couple of minutes. Dab, dip, squeeze, then dab again. Luna kept dabbing gently at the burn until she had cleaned the entire ring.

"Okay…" she inhaled then breathed out slowly. The girl placed the cloth into the bowl that was inches from her right knee and picked up the hyper potion from her left. She switched the bottle from her left hand to her right and put her second and third fingers on the trigger.

The girl looked up at the dragon who was staring at the pink spray bottle. "This is going to sting a little," she warned.

She pressed the nozzle with both fingers and the chemical streamed out as a mist. Salamence grunted in pain when the liquid made contact with the burn. It felt like a Beedrill sting but oddly smelled sickly sweet. It gritted its teeth and clenched its eyes. Luna had only sprayed one part of the burn, but she still had to work on the rest of the leg. Still holding the trigger, she moved her arm in an up and down fashion, making sure she took care of the worst bits.

"There," Luna said as she let go of the trigger. The liquid stopped misting out and the smelled died down.

Salamence calmed down and sighed in relief. The great dragon opened its eyes and stared down at its burn. The colors were still there, but the wound was covered in that substance. With every passing second, Salamence could feel it drying because of the cold feeling. It then stared back at the human who had just placed the potion down and was again searching the contents of her backpack with her hand. Within seconds, she lifted her arm up and held onto a bandage roll. She then unfurled a portion of the bandage and started wrapping the wound. Salamence winced in pain as the rough cloth rubbed against the burn. However, that feeling didn't last long.

"And…" she said as she cut the bandage and tied up both ends in a tight double knot. "There we go."

Salamence growled softly and again stared at its leg. The wound was now covered in about three layers of tightly wound gauze. The dragon stared at it for a second then back at the trainer, who just put the roll of bandages back into one pocket. She then removed her hand from the bag and the content was replaced by a large bag of berries. There were all sorts of fruits in there, ranging from oran berries, pecha berries, lum berries, persim berries, rawst berries, a couple of sitrus berries, aspear berries, chesto berries, and cheri berries. The dragon observed the girl unzip the storage bag and take out two rawst berries.

"Here," the girl said lifting her free hand up with the two strawberry lookalikes. "Eat these. It'll ease the burn even further."

The dragon tilted its spiked head in confusion. From what it had witnessed tonight, not all trainers are bad. It had just witnessed this human girl treat its burn. Salamence lowered its head and touched her hand with its mouth. It picked up the two berries into its fanged mouth and chewed. The crushing and grinding of the fruits could be heard even a foot away from. Normally, dragon types do not eat berries. And for good reason too. The rawst berries it was eating was juicy but a little bitter.

"I know, they taste a little bitter. To me, they taste like grapefruits, which are not exactly my favorite. But occasionally, I eat them," Luna commented as she placed the now closed berry bag into her backpack.

It didn't look like it, but Salamence heard that comment. It didn't know what grapefruits were though. The dragon type swallowed the berries with a low gulp and then looked back at the girl. She was looking at the Vaporeon and Clefa who were sleeping a couple of inches from the fire. Salamence assumed they had fallen asleep while the girl was treating its burn.

Luna brought her bag closer to her and unzipped the smaller pocket in the front. With her right hand, she took out her pokegear, opened it in front of her, and started searching the various apps. After going through the third screen, she found an app that looked useful. When she selected it, the screen turned green, meaning that the app was ready. She was surprised when the camera lens in the front emitted a small ray of light that lasted for a second. Salamence was also intrigued by this and leaned in a little closer to the girl.

To Luna's surprise, this app was a pokemon scanner. One by one, the various stats about this Salamence popped up on the screen. The stats included its height, age, the moves it knows, and gender. Luna did not pay much attention to the first two.

"Wow…I've never even heard of this app. Maybe this pokegear is an updated version," she said in amazement.

"Okay…," the girl said as she examined the dragon's moveset. "So you know Fly, Earthquake, Flamethrower, and…" she stopped mid-sentence when she saw the last attack. Now she knew why this Salamence attacked them in the first place. She stared back up at the dragon type who was now a mere foot from her face.

"_Outrage…that's why it attacked us. So someone DID attack it mercilessly, thus triggering that move,"_ Luna realized while staring into the dragon's eyes.

"You attacked us earlier…" she started. Salamence leaned its head back looked down in shame.

She then placed her free palm on Salamence's cheek. The dragon was a little startled by this action and wanted to retreat in shock. However, when it stared at the trainer again, she gave it a soft smile.

"It's okay. It wasn't your fault," Luna said while stroking the dragon with her thumb. "I forgive you."

Salamence let out an affectionate cry. It was happy when the trainer said that. The dragon type leaned in closer to the girl and started nudging her affectionately. The girl reacted with a giggle and wrapped her arms around the winged lizard's head in a hug. While doing so, the girl brought her phone up and looked up the last detail about the pokemon. She was a little surprised but responded with a soft giggle.

"So…," she said while holding on to Salamence. "You're a girl."

The dragon leaned away by a foot at that remark in embarrassment. Salamences are supposed to be among the toughest dragons in the world. Affectionate things like this aren't supposed to affect them in any way, physically or emotionally. Salamence's cheeks turned bright red as a result.

Luna smiled. "Hey, it's okay. I didn't mean that as an insult."

Salamence stared back at the human girl. This was the first human she encountered that showed her respect and did not intend to catch her. She smiled back at the girl as a way of saying 'thank you'. The eye contact did not last long however. Luna closed her eyes and covered a yawn with a hand.

"Man, I'm tired," the girl said as she yawned again. "And I really don't think I have the strength to walk back to camp."

The female dragon let out a soft growl and leaned her head back. She then lifted her left wing and covered the small human like a blanket. The thin part of her wing was the perfect size for the girl's head, so there wasn't any sort of interference. Thankfully, the other two pokemon were not in the way, as they were only sleeping by the fire.

In response to this, Luna leaned back until her back was against the dragon's body. Her eyes were already getting heavy. She tilted her head back against the scaly body. Luna's vision was getting blurry; the only thing she could see was the light of the dimming campfire.

"Thanks…Salamence…," she thanked the dragon before succumbing into sleep.

The next morning…

The sun had already risen above the horizon, lighting up the sky in a bright blue by the time everyone else woke up. Lucif was the first to get up and was already cooking an open fire breakfast with a skillet. Next came Adair who started the morning off with some exercise. Finally, Shadow and Pikachu woke up only to fall back asleep into their sleeping bags. However busy or sleepy they were, they all had the same question going on in their heads.

"Has anyone seen Luna and Aquos?" Lucif asked while getting up from nearby the fire toward his bag a few feet from him.

"I haven't seen them. Maybe they're getting more firewood?" Adair said as she did a hamstring stretch.

"It's been an hour. If they were getting firewood, they would have been back by now," Lucif told her cousin. He took out a wooden spatula and made his way back to the fire.

"That and Luna's sleeping bag is still unmade." The boy pointed to the still messy sleeping bag with his cooking utensil.

Shadow lifted his head up and looked at both trainers. "Or those fairy pokemon might have kidnapped Luna in her sleep and offered her as a sacrifice to that dragon," he said after stifling a mischievous chuckle.

Adair sauntered over to her sleeping bag. She didn't like the comment that boy said. Shadow couldn't see her very well but she had a straight face. The Johto trainer grabbed her pillow from her sleeping bag nearby and threw it at the boy's head. Thankfully, the pillow did not hit Lucif or touch the fire. That and he was too busy cooking everybody breakfast. It was a pretty firm pillow too so that pushed Shadow back by a bit.

"Hey!" his yell was muffled by the pillow now covering his face.

"Quiet you. I'm about to do some yoga and that requires silence," she said in a haughty tone. Adair stood on her tippy-toes and performed a palm-tree stance.

Shadow moaned in irritation and fell asleep under the cover of the pillows. Pikachu on the other hand just walked over to where Adair was and joined her in the yoga session. He felt bad that his trainer wasn't there to enjoy the morning sunrise.

Back in the cave…

Luna slowly opened and closed her eyes. At first, her vision was blurry and she could only see light ahead. Then after blinking a few more times, the blurriness cleared. It was morning already; light had already permeated in the forest and the entire mountain and mist covered the lower part of the forest. She could even hear a few bird pokemon calls from outside, even though it was far away. The leaves outside swayed with the wind, giving the impression that the sun rays were dancing. The wind felt both refreshing and cold, considering the altitude of the mountain and the time of day.

The girl wiped the sleep from her eyes. After blinking a couple more times, she noticed the huge red wing that covered most of her body. Luna looked around and saw the cave walls, the burnt remains of the campfire, her Vaporeon sleeping in his usual curled position, and finally the Salamence she had been sleeping against.

"_Oh, that's right,"_ she said in her mind as she remembered what had happened last night.

"_Clefa must have gone back to its friends while we were asleep,"_ Luna assumed.

The girl slid then crawled out from under the warmth of the dragon's wing. Her body braced the cold air that drifted into the cave. She then crawled over to her backpack and took out a can of pokemon food. After closing the bag, she placed the can down and grabbed the bowl nearby that still had about a fourth of water left. Luna drained the water away from her, thus allowing it to collect at a nearby indentation on the ground. Afterwards, she dried the inside with the now-dry washcloth in her bag, which she returned after use. Then she proceeded to open the can.

Aquos was awakened by that soft crackling sound. His finned ears twitched up and down at the second of disturbance. The Vaporeon let out a long yawn with his eyes still closed. Then, like a cat, he rubbed one of his eyes with a paw.

The human noticed this while pouring the brown pellets and smiled. She shook the can lightly as the contents emptied into the bowl. The combination of the resonance in the cave and the clatter of the pokemon food would wake anyone up. So she poured the can touching the bottom of the bowl to minimize the sound. With the last of the pokemon food gone from the package, Luna closed the can with the still attached lid and placed it inside the left side pocket of her bag. She intended to throw it out later.

Aquos quietly walked over to the pokemon food and sniffed at it. He opened his mouth and was about to eat a gigantic chunk. That attempt was interrupted when he felt a hand on the base of his neck. The eeveelution looked up and saw the calm expression of Luna. She didn't smile, but she didn't look angry. The trainer shook her head as her silent way of saying "no". Aquos closed his mouth and backed up a little, his trainer letting go of him. From what he could tell from his trainer's expression, the food wasn't for him. He frowned at stared intently at the dragon's breakfast.

Luna chuckled silently at this. She then placed her hand on her partner's neck and stroked his side with her fingers. Aquos looked back at her and saw her gesture to the outside with her head. He smiled, knowing now that Salamence just needs some time alone and his breakfast would be served to him back at camp. Once again, Luna let go of Aquos and got up. The girl then walked away back to the outside, making sure that she doesn't make a sound. Her Vaporeon got up as well and followed suit.

Back outside…

"Maybe Luna's a sleepwalker?" Lucif assumed as he moved whatever he was cooking in the pan with the spatula.

Adair sat down and stretched her legs out to do some V-sits. "No, I've never seen her do that. And she told me before that she doesn't sleepwalk." During that time, Pikachu was doing a number of trunk twists next to Adair.

Lucif flipped something over in the pan. "Well that debunks that theory…"

"Maybe that Salamence ate her?" Shadow muttered in Adair's pillow.

"Will you knock it off with those comments?" Adair, who had just switched to doing some hamstring stretches, turned around and glared at the boy lying down.

"Didn't say anything coach…," the mumbled with the pillow still covering his face.

Then, a familiar voice sounded off to their left, right in Lucif's case since he was sitting facing the tunnel they came from last night. "Or…she might have gotten up early and went around for a morning walk!"

The Adair, Lucif, and Pikachu stopped what they were doing and looked west. Coming from that direction was Luna and her Vaporeon partner, who was walking alongside her. Shadow jumped when he heard that girl's voice. He threw the pillows off of his head and saw her stop just a few feet away from the camp.

"Luna! Where've you been?" Adair screamed in delight.

"Just out," Luna raised her head a little and inhaled once. "Mmm…something's smells good…"

"That Luna, would be the now finished breakfast quesadillas. You're just in time for breakfast," Lucif smiled after flipping the last toasted quesadilla in the pan. He then took out four plastic plates from his bag and scooped two quesadillas into each plate. Afterwards, he picked up a red and white colored can beside him that was labeled "Salsa", which he used the same spatula and spread the sauce over the quesadillas.

"Alright! I'm starved," Luna said as she started walking over to the chef. Soon, the entire troupe was gathered sitting around the fire eating their breakfast quesadillas…or pokemon food for Aquos and Pikachu. Like the night before, they were positioned in between their seated trainers.

Luna did not know what was in the quesadilla. How the people in the pokemon world managed their food production was still a mystery to her. Still, she did not bother to ask…in fear of what had happened last time. From what she could deduce, the quesadilla had a combination of scrambled eggs, cheese, sausage, chives, and tomatoes. Add that with the salsa on the side which resulted in a delicious, other-dimensional, Mexican breakfast. Breakfast was pretty quiet. Nobody really talked for the past fifteen minutes or so.

"Okay seriously…" Adair said as she finished the last chunk of her quesadilla and put her plate down on her lap. "Where did you run off to Luna?"

"I told you. I just went around for a walk," she replied, dipping her second serving into her salsa.

"Uh huh…right. This place is as big as a football stadium. If you were walking around here, one of us would at least see you up and about after waking up," Adair retorted.

At that moment, Aquos stopped eating the tasty pokemon food and perked his head up. He knew that this sort of situation would be hard to weasel out of. That and he was just as guilty as his trainer since he left with her last night. Unless humans could understand the pokemon language, he would do what he could to cover up the situation. But he couldn't, so he just sat there in silence, listening to the conversation carry out. He was also praying that his friend Pikachu would not start asking him the same questions.

"Luna…she's got a point. I don't think you were doing what you told us you were doing. …If I even said that correctly…," Lucif scratched his head at that remark. However, he still kept his gaze on her.

The fifteen year old scooped the now half-eaten tortilla into the salsa and took another bite. "Seriously, I don't know what you guys are talking about," she said with her mouth full.

"Hey!" Shadow yelled next to her. Luna jumped at the call and looked at the ultimate life form next to her. Like Adair, he also had finished the last of his breakfast. "We know you're hiding something. If I were you, I'd spill it."

It was a good thing Luna had already swallowed her food because she was now gawking at Shadow. Luna silently placed her plate next to her feet then sat straight like she was in an office.

Luna gulped and lifted an eyebrow at him. "How did you…?"

"Two things. What those two said about seeing you when they got up and the fact that your arm is shaking," Shadow said coolly while keeping his eyes closed.

Luna changed her attention from the boy to her right arm. She wanted to tell him that it was because the morning was cold and not because she was lying. Then again, she was keeping a secret. And telling them her reason for her arm shivering would only make the situation worse. She wanted to slap herself for not acting cool.

The girl let out a guilty sigh. "Fine…but can I finish my breakfast first before I show you?"

Sure enough, they let her finish her breakfast. Luna told her friends to wait there while she left to bring back her "reason". Like before, Aquos followed his partner, leaving the rest of the group behind. For the next few minutes, the three humans and pokemon sat in silence, either finishing the last of their breakfast, staring into the fire, or lying down watching the fluffy white clouds pass by.

"So remind me again…why did she leave?" Adair asked anyone who was willing to answer.

"Quote: Just wait here. I'm going to bring my reason for my absence to you. Don't even think about following," Shadow answered her while rubbing his eyes with his index finger and thumb.

"And this reason can walk?" she waved her hand as if she were gesturing to something in the sky.

"Apparently it can," Lucif said.

He then saw three figures coming out of the shadows of the left wooded area. One by one, they passed by the trees and came into the open. The first two he could see as Luna and Aquos. The third, however, took longer to come out. As it came closer to the light, he could make out a large, reptilian body, a large tail that moved from side to side, a head with three spikes on each side, and huge red wings.

Lucif's expression turned from curiosity to fear at the sight of the dragon type. Nervously, he gulped. "It can also fly…"

Pikachu turned around to that direction and uttered a soft "Piiiikaaaaa…?" Like Lucif, he was pretty surprised at what he was seeing. The electric pokemon wanted to go into his battle stance, but since Luna and Aquos were walking calmly next to it, the Salamence did not mean any harm. Still, Pikachu could not stop himself from gawking at the oncoming pokemon.

"Fly?" Adair wondered about that new statement. She was still watching the clouds move by.

"And can tear us all apart if provoked…" Lucif said with a trembling voice.

"Wha?" his cousin inquired. "What the heck are you talking abou…" she then caught sight of what was coming to the campsite from the right. Adair smacked the ground quickly with her right hand and supported herself up in a half-sitting position. "HOLY ARCEUS!"

Shadow jumped a little when he heard Adair scream. He did hear Lucif's comments, but he was too busy trying to process that information. He his head around slowly to the left and created the same shocked expression as everyone else. Right there, just standing a few feet away from the campsite, was the Salamence.

"What the-? Luna! ARE YOU INSANE?" Shadow retorted at the girl who stood tall at nearly two-thirds or so of the dragon's height (the dragon being about six feet tall at the head and Luna being about five feet).

Luna kept her cool and smiled at the boy. "Maybe I am. Maybe not," she told him. The girl then folded her arms across her chest.

"Newsflash: THAT'S THE DRAGON THAT ATTACKED US EARLIER!" Shadow screamed the obvious to her. At this point, Shadow yells at her with sharp teeth and blank white eyes.

"Yeah? So?" she remarked in an arguable tone.

"Hasn't it ever occurred to you that you had been hanging out with…oh I don't know…A DANGEROUS FIRE-BREATHING DRAGON?!"

"Yeah it has! If you just let me explain-"Luna said in a slightly louder tone and was interrupted again.

"Explain what? IT'S A KILLING MACHINE!" Shadow spat. After venting out his anger at Luna's supposed stupidity, the boy was breathing heavily due to fatigue.

At that moment, Salamence glared at the boy. She wanted to teach him a lesson for insulting her for something she did not mean to do. In her mind, she imagined walking up to an angry Shadow (both chibis in the same mountain background) and releasing a full power flamethrower. The boy screamed and when she stopped the attack, Shadow was charred black all over. Salamence smiled at that image and wished she could do that to him now. However, like before, she placed her trust in the human girl. After all, she did help her out.

Luna squinted her eyes a little and stared at Shadow in silence. The girl took in a deep breath and exhaled slowly before replying. "Okay…one, if you look at the left leg, you'll see why I didn't sleep at the camp for half the night."

Shadow slowly switched his attention from the girl to the dragon's left leg. No emotion was shown on his face as he looked at the still bandaged limb. Adair, Lucif, and Pikachu had been silently watching both the dragon, the arguing Shadow, and the female trainer calmly standing from them. Although it was slightly entertaining to watch Shadow blow his head off, they couldn't help but agree with him. However, they followed what Luna said and diverted their attention to the treated leg.

"I couldn't just return to camp and let Salamence suffer. It wasn't a natural burn you know. A pokemon did not create that wound," Luna gestured Salamence to lower her head and she stroked both sides below the eyes.

"A pokemon didn't?" Lucif quickly asked.

"Yeah. Someone attacked Salamence."

Lucif held his chin with his right hand and in a Thinker position, processed the information Luna gave out. Adair just sat there, staring at them, and one eye twitching. Shadow kept staring into Luna's eyes as if it were a staring contest. Luna, on the other hand, just stood there like she was giving out a school presentation.

"And second," she looked at Salamence then back at the crowd. "Salamence is a girl. Don't call her an 'it'."

"WHAT!?" Shadow exclaimed in surprise again.

Adair still stared at her with her eye twitching. At that remark, her cousin quickly put his hand down and gawked at them. Pikachu was slightly surprised, but showed his reaction by calmly sitting down.

"THAT THING IS A SHE!?"

"Yes Shad. What? Is that a problem?" Luna lifted an eyebrow up at him.

Immediately, Lucif and Adair replied with 'no's and 'not at alls'. The little electric pokemon just shook his head slowly while still staring up at the dragon. To Pikachu's favor, Salamence was not staring down at him otherwise that would make him feel awkward.

"So…how do you know it's a she?" the copper haired boy asked, leaning his head forward a little in curiosity.

"Apparently, my pokegear has an app that scans a pokemon and tells me that basic stats, including gender," she informed him.

"Oh…," was all Lucif could say.

Just then, the three pokemon uttered soft cries as they turned their heads up to the skies. Something was coming. The looked up everywhere, trying to find the source of the oncoming sound. Soon, the sound became louder that even the humans could hear. The sound they heard was the whooshing and simultaneous booms of helicopter blades.

"A helicopter? Here?" Adair's cousin wondered.

The sound got loud really fast. With that, all the pokemon and the humans determined the source of the sound to be coming from the southern part of the mountain wall. The pokemon went into a stance, ready for whatever would pop out of that wall. All three uttered growls and threatening cries. Except for Adair and Lucif, who turned in that direction and backed up a few steps to avoid the gusts of wind that would come, Shadow and Luna took a step back and crouched a little in a battle stance.

The air vehicle popped out from behind the mountain wall like an animal ambushing its prey. The copter looked to be more of a cross between an airplane and a helicopter. The wings on each side ended in a circular shape, which served as the inputs for the rotating blades. The front part of the aircraft looked like a bomber plane because judging from the wide shape and deep width, the driver's area looked like it would fit a minivan. However, the copter's striking feature was not how it looked or its dark grey color, but the large red R symbol on the copter's nose.

The winds the copter created continuously impacted the group below. The grass was already blown flat by the gusts. The once still pond nearby now had a multitude of waves and ripples on the surface. All the humans had to put either one or both of their arms over their face to block the winds. Salamence was only mildly irritated by the gusts and only squinted at the vehicle. Aquos and Pikachu had their eyes shut tight from the force of the gales.

Suddenly, two small pockets about two feet in size slid opened, revealing two grappling arms that extended to where they were. The claw-like prongs opened and grabbed hold of the distracted Vaporeon and Pikachu. The arms quickly retreated back close to the hovercraft, taking hostage two screaming pokemon.

"Aquos!" Luna yelled above the gales as she witnessed her partner get taken away from her.

"Pikachu!" Shadow yelled in time with the girl when she mentioned her pokemon.

"What the heck is going on!?" Adair screamed over the force of the winds.

"Listen, is that a complaint I hear?" a female voice sounded from the two bullhorn speakers at the head of the hovercraft.

"Yes or perhaps it was just the wind in your ear," said a gruff male voice.

Luna let out an irritated groan that her friends couldn't hear due to the helicopter. _"Not these two again…"_ she thought with a frown.

The black colored windshield at the front of the plane/copter cleared when a slide from the inside moved up. Inside, a woman with long blonde hair in ponytails sat on the right. On the left and taking control of the wheel was her partner Butch. Both stared at the trainers and Salamence and laughed evilly in unison.

**Prepare for trouble and make it double. **

**To infect the world with devastation, **

**to blite all peoples within every nation.**

**To denounce the goodness of truth and love, **

**to extend our wrath to the stars above.**

**Cassidy and Butch. **

**We're team rocket circling earth all day and night, **

**surrender to us now or you'll surely lose the fight!**

"Well well well…" Luna said loudly while partially covering her face. "If it isn't Cassidy and Klutz!"

"It's Butch you stupid twerpette! Didn't you hear it in the motto?" Butch screamed from inside the plane.

Adair growled in anger. "So you're Team Rocket. Tell me, what are you going to do with those pokemon?" she hollered at them.

"What we always do sweetheart!" Cassidy replied with a laugh. "Take them back to HQ and use them to our ends!"

At that moment, Salamence let out a furious roar. The sound echoed through the area, unaffected by the sounds of the copter. Cassidy turned her attention from Adair to the furious dragon type. Her scream of surprise amplified through the microphone for all to hear.

"It's that Salamence!" Cassidy retorted.

Butch looked to his right let out a yelp as well. "Not that thing again! I still got the burns it gave me last time!"

Luna squinted her eyes at the Rocket grunts. Quickly, she glanced down at Salamence's still-bandaged leg and then back at the hovercraft. The girl screamed at the top of her voice so that the pilots could hear.

"Hey! Were you two the nutheads that injured Salamence?"

"You twerp, I ought to have you by the throat for that remark. But lucky for you, that's not our top priority. Of course we were the ones that did it! We heard the rumors in Viridian City that there was a Salamence in this area. So we came here to catch it!" Cassidy screamed back.

"But that thing beat us up and got away from us! So we decided to go with something smaller," Butch explained, looking at the captured Vaporeon and Pikachu struggling to break free from the robotic limbs. "This Vaporeon looks tough. AND that Pikachu is a shiny! Who could resist a catch like that? It's a two-in-one package deal!"

Lucif was mad. He formed his hands into tight fists and wanted to punch both of them in the face. The Team Aqua leader he had encountered before was right. They were not aware, but Team Aqua had already taken the place of the fallen Team Aqua. And these two were no different than that treacherous Archie.

"You crooks! Give those pokemon back right now!" he demanded in rage.

"Sorry hun, can't do that," the woman with the ponytails chuckled evilly.

"You snooze, you lose twerps!" Butch followed with that same sort of laugh.

The man turned the wheel sharply to the left, which caused the hovercraft to turn around in a circle. Aquos and Pikachu were still struggling to break free from the pronged grips. Their screams were muffled when the copter's tail faced the trainers. Just when it turned away, the grey helicopter leaned forward and disappeared from view. The gales and the rotor sounds that struck the trainers faded.

"We got to go after them!" Luna ran forward a bit, wanting to chase after them.

"Those cowards…running off like that without a fight!" Shadow growled. His right hand tightened into a fist in anger.

The ultimate life form screamed at himself in frustration. _"If I still had my powers now, I would have annihilated them with a chaos spear!" _

Luna stared up at the tip of the wall. If they used the tunnels to get out of the mountain, Team Rocket would be long gone by then. Heck, even climbing the mountain would take even longer. Then, she heard a few heavy footfalls stop next to her. Luna turned her head and saw Salamence looking down at her. Luna stared at her, wondering what she wanted. Salamence shook her spiked head and gestured to her back. The gesture was completed when she lowered herself and her wings to the ground. Still keeping her head up, Salamence silently waited, looking at her intently.

That moment, Luna understood. She nodded, letting the dragon know that she got the message. The girl quickly walked over to the dragon and climbed onto its back. Like a horse, she put a leg over the base of the neck and sat down. The other trainers saw this and looked at her as if she were nuts.

"Luna!?" Adair jumped.

"I'm not going to sit here and do nothing. I'm going after them," she replied with determination.

Salamence was about to rise up when the boy known as Shadow ran up to them. "Wait. I'm going with you."

Luna blinked at him and nodded. With that, the boy climbed to the dragon's back and sat right behind the girl. Salamence lifted itself from the ground and extended her huge red wings. The dragon stared at the tip of the wall and flapped her wings. They launched off the ground with a jump. Luna leaned forward and held on to the pokemon's neck. Shadow was forced to put his arms around the girl's waist as a precaution. His cheeks flaring red in embarrassment at this sort of action. With two more great flaps, the trio quickly gained more altitude and zoomed over the wall.

Back at the summit, the two cousins watched their friends go and chase down Team Rocket. Both stared up at the wall, wishing they would do more to help. Adair then looked at her cousin who just kept staring with a look of helplessness.

"We have to help them!" she told her cousin.

"You got any flying type pokemon?" he asked with courage.

Adair shook her head in disappointment. "No. The only flying pokemon I have is Dodrio and she's useless in this situation! All of my pokemon are ground-based!"

Lucif wanted to smack himself in shame. Like his cousin, he was completely useless in this situation. The ex-agent put his right hand into his pants pocket to bring out his pokemon. He growled at the fact that his fingers felt none of the round shaped capsules.

"Lucif, don't you have any of your pokemon?" Adair asked him as if searching for a small ray of hope.

The boy shook his head in shame. He had forgotten that he had left on his solitary journey without any of his team. After his latest mission with Minun and causing its handicap, Lucif did not bother to bring his other pokemon in fear that he would relive the events from the Hoenn region. All of his pokemon were at Professor Elm's lab, probably wondering where their trainer has gone.

"I didn't bring any of my pokemon," he said shamefully. "I left them at Professor Elm's lab."

Adair stared at him in shock. They were indirectly rendered useless. Adair did nothing but stare up at the wall, waiting and hoping that her friends would return with their pokemon safe.

Over Route 3…

It didn't take very long for Salamence to catch up to the aircraft. After all, she was considered by other pokemon to be a very fast flyer. Below her, the trees were about the size of tiny balls. All around them passed by as if it were a highway.

The blue and red dragon swooped down below the vehicle. This way, Team Rocket wouldn't know they were here. Up front, Pikachu and Aquos struggled to escape. The Vaporeon was letting out a combination of aurora beams and hydro pumps to weaken and destroy the metal. However, the material seemed to be a lot tougher than it looked. The electric mouse unleashed a thunderbolt in his attempt to destroy the arm, but that did not do any good as the current did not travel throughout the metal.

Luna saw this and confirmed her observation to Shadow. "It looks like Team Rocket had somehow made this plane electric proof. That and the steel is pretty thick if Aquos can't break through with his attacks."

"So what do you have in mind?" Shadow asked, hoping that her plan would be a good one.

The girl thought for a moment. "Tell Pikachu to use iron tail."

Shadow was confused at this. "What?"

"Even if the metal is strong, Pikachu's iron tail can chip away at it."

"How is that going to do any good?" he asked.

"Shad, just trust me on this. I've got a plan," Luna retorted.

Shadow sighed and went along with it. Salamence flapped her wings and flew in close until they were under the plane's nose. Pikachu and Aquos stopped struggling and smiled when they saw their trainers fly closer to them.

"Vapor!"

"Pika!"

"Hang on guys! We'll get you out!" Luna assured them as best as she could over the sound of the rotor blades.

"Pikachu!" Shadow called out. He leaned out to the left so that his pokemon could see him. "Do you think you could use iron tail on your bond?"

The electric type maneuvered his body up and lifted his bolt shaped tail. Thankfully, the claw was not wrapped too tightly around his body. Pikachu smiled when his tail touched the flat of the mechanism.

"Pika!" he cried happily.

"Good, now use iron tail until it breaks!" Shadow ordered.

Pikachu lowered his tail which glowed white in that moment. He then swung it upward and impacted the metal. The sound echoed with a low clang. The attack only created a small dent in that area but Pikachu continued on with his attack. After about three more attempts, the dent got larger and the arm started to bend downward.

Luna reached into her pocket and pulled out a pokeball. She pressed the button and the ball enlarged to nearly the size of her hand. The pokeball opened and a white was released in front of her. That light took shape into a levitating purple rag.

"Mismagius!" the pokemon cried, awaiting her trainer's orders.

"Rowena, use shadow ball on that bond and break Pikachu free!"

Inside the plane…

"Butch, here is to a successful mission," Cassidy smiled and reclined in her seat.

"My name is Bu-…oh wait, you said it right…" he yelled at first and then muttered the second.

The pilot first looked out into the distance, making out the misty shapes of the Pewter City buildings. Then he looked down at the pokemon, their struggling a happy reminder of their successful mission. His happy mood went away when the pokemon they captured stopped struggling. In fact, they were smiling. That and the "shiny" Pikachu was using iron tail to break the metal.

"Uh…Cassidy?" he said while still looking at the pokemon.

"What? I'm trying to nap?"

"That Pikachu is trying to break free…" he told her.

"So? Let them struggle. The steel is pretty thick. They'll never break out of those things."

Butch was about to reply when he noticed the metal arm begin to tilt downward. He constantly tried to tell Cassidy of the situation, but she kept denying him. Keeping an eye on them would be easier too if the inside of the plane did not keep most of the sound out.

Back outside…

Pikachu performed one last iron tail. At the same time, Rowena had already unleashed a small but powerful shadow ball at the dented area. The combination of the tail attack and the impact of dark energy was enough for the metal to break. At that moment, Pikachu was falling down to the forest below, still attached to the arm.

"PIKA!" Pikachu screamed, free-falling fast.

"VAPOR!" Aquos cried in horror, watching his friend fall.

"Rowena, catch him with psychic!" Luna told the ghost type.

The Mismagius flew down after the pokemon. It did not take her very long to catch up to him. With a chant, her shadowy eyes glowed blue. Pikachu's body glowed that same color and he stopped in midair. The electric type stopped screaming and thanked the Mismagius in their language. Rowena also did him another favor by using psychic again to break off the rest of the bond while still psychically holding him. Afterwards, she, along with Pikachu in tow, flew back up to Luna to await her command.

"Nice job Rowena," Luna smiled and nodded at her.

"Mag," Rowena replied.

Luna then turned to Aquos who was still trapped. "Aquos, I want you to use acid armor."

"Por!?" Aquos cried as a way of saying "What!?"

"It's okay, Rowena will catch you."

With that, the Vaporeon nodded and closed his eyes. In an instant, his entire body glowed blue and liquefied. His form, now turned into water, easily slipped through the hole. As the blue blob fell, the shape materialized back into the form of a Vaporeon.

"Vapor!" he screamed. Rowena faced the falling Vaporeon and the water type's body became surrounded by a blue aura. The pokemon hovered there and then was lifted back up to his friends.

"Thanks Rowena. Now please take them back to Mt. Moon. We'll finish things off here," Luna told her pokemon.

"Mag!" Rowena cried with a nod. With that said, the three pokemon floated away in the opposite direction, heading back towards the mountain.

Shadow thought a moment then decided to tell Luna. "Luna, I've got an idea! I want you to help me get inside the plane."

"What?" she wondered at that plan.

"If I can recall, almost all vehicles, whatever terrain they're built for, always have an emergency backup plan in case something goes wrong," he explained, remembering that detail from his world. He hoped that it also applied here.

Luna turned around and stared at him in confusion. She really had no idea how to respond to that. Shadow stared back at her, waiting for an answer. The black-haired girl did not know what he was planning, but she knew that it was risky. Reluctantly, and still with doubt about the plan, she nodded.

Inside the plane…

"I'm serious Cassidy! Something's up!"

"Butch, will you quiet down? I'm about to take a nap!" she yelled at him while stifling a yawn.

Butch mumbled something that she could not hear. The agent shot daggers at the now relaxing woman before checking back on the pokemon. His mouth slid down fast as he noticed the left arm that contained Pikachu was already broken. Butch's attention then diverted to the Vaporeon, who was even more surprised as he witnessed the water type slide out with the move acid armor. Afterwards, he screamed when he saw a Mismagius lead them away with psychic in the opposite direction below them.

"CASSIDY!" he yelled at his partner.

"What?" the blonde woman yelled back at the man who kept ruining her nap.

"If you still don't believe me, then check the arms!"

The woman sighed and looked below the ship where the arms were. Cassidy yelped in surprise and nearly fell onto the pad of buttons below her.

"What!? They escaped!?"

"That's what I was trying to tell you!" Butch spat at her.

Just then, a large pokemon zoomed out from below the plane. Both Rocket agents focused their attention on the flying pokemon and saw that it was the Salamence from earlier. They also noticed that there were two trainers riding on its back. The dragon kept flying forward for another few seconds before turning around to face them. Both agents saw that they were about twenty yards (sixty feet) from their position.

"Okay twerps…what are you up to?" Cassidy grumbled.

Just when she said that, the small image of the dragon rapidly got larger. Salamence's wings beat faster and in smaller intervals. With each passing second, the pokemon and the trainers drew closer. Cassidy sat back down and pressed a button on the main console. The medium sized square space in front of her seat drew back and slid open, revealing a joystick with a red button on top and a screen that showed the image of the target. At the same time, a portion on the plane's nose drew back and slid open on both sides, revealing a large taser-like weapon.

Cassidy maneuvered the joystick until the squares on the screen locked onto the target. The woman smirked and pressed the button. At that moment, the two prongs on the large taser weapon charged up with blue electricity. One moment later and the weapon fired, sending a single bolt of electricity towards the target.

At this point, Salamence was about fifty feet from the nose of the aircraft. The dragon easily dodged the oncoming bolt by veering to the left. The humans on her back leaned with her yet still held on. The weapon charged again and another bolt was fired in that direction. Salamence veered to the left while still speeding towards the plane. Again, the weapon fired again. The dragon easily dodged the next bolts.

Finally, when she was about ten feet away, the dragon sharply turned and crouched, her back now facing the crooks. She felt the arms of the one called Luna tightly wrap around her neck. In that moment, she could feel the boy jump from her back towards the windshield. At the same time, a bolt of electricity hit her on the spot where he had jumped.

Salamence screamed in pain as the attack enveloped her body. The blue and red dragon hovered there, paralyzed and writhing in agony. It seems that these humans had learned to replicate the move thunder wave. What's worse, Luna was caught in the fire as well. The girl was in agony. To her, it felt like ten shocker pens were piercing her body all at once.

The agony ended after what seemed like a minute when really it was only a few seconds. The volts faded, but the damage was done. Salamence fell, still paralyzed from the attack. The human could not move very well, but she still held on. For Salamence, it took a second or so to regain some movement. At the last minute, before touching the tops of the trees below, the pokemon flapped her wings and flew back up to the ship.

Back inside the ship…

Cassidy and Butch just sat there; immobile and gawking. Pokemon attacking them was one thing, but a human!? That was a new one. The boy dressed in grey and black maneuvered his body into a flying kick position. The combination of the speed he came in and the power he exerted were enough to break the windshield. Cassidy and Butch had to shield their faces with their arms to protect them from the shards of glass. They were also greeted by the strong winds from outside. The invader passed by them and landed nimbly on his feet, unharmed by the glass or the impact.

"This is a nice ride you've got," Shadow faced them and smirked. "Nice and spacious."

"You twerp! You're going to pay for that!" the female agent yelled.

Cassidy got up from her seat and jumped after him. Shadow dodged her attack by sidestepping to the left. As a result, the woman grunted as she hit the cold steel floor. She quickly recovered from her fall and ran after the boy who stood there battle ready. This time, the ultimate life form quickly crouched down onto his back. He put a leg forward, making contact with Cassidy, and used her momentum to launch her to the left side of the plane. Fortunately, there was no door or window there. She hit the wall hard and fell upside down until she was lying flat on her stomach.

Shadow ran over to the main console and found what he was looking for. It seemed luck was on his side because his theory had been proven. The button was encased in a glass case and was at the very middle of the console. Shadow lifted the lid that contained a small red button. As quickly as he opened it, he pressed the button.

"No! Not that button!" Butch yelled, his right hand stretched outward. However, the damage was already done.

The light in the ceiling blinked red. It was also accompanied by a rapid beeping sound. Shadow turned to the man and smirked menacingly.

"Honestly, why does every vehicle have a self-destruct button? It's a stupid idea," Shadow told him off.

The beeping sound indicating the countdown sped up. Shadow took this as his cue. He estimated that he only had a few seconds left to evacuate the plane. The boy leapt onto the console and ran for the nose of the aircraft. Behind him, the beeping sound was at the final stretch. When Shadow reached the tip, he jumped off, falling towards the ground below.

The sound changed from a rapid beeping to a single high tone. Shadow was already a considerable distance away when the aircraft exploded. He couldn't see it, but above him was an array of fire sparks, smoke, and falling pieces. Then, out of nowhere, the Salamence zoomed below. Shadow landed on the dragon and sat back in his place behind Luna. He felt the dragon stop and sharply turn, which then faced the plume of black smoke above.

"That plane had a self-destruct button?" Luna inquired in confusion.

He sighed. "Yes. Like I said, almost every vehicle has one. Which is stupid because things like this would happen," Shadow told her.

The girl was silent for a moment. She then smacked her face. "That's a really stupid idea." Salamence agreed at that remark with a grunt.

The sky…

Cassidy and Butch were covered in burns, black dust, and bruises. The two Rocket agents were violently launched upward because of the explosion. Cassidy was in a crouched position and with her arms together while Butch was sprawled out as if he were on solid ground.

"A self-destruct button? Really!?" Cassidy screamed at him.

The man argued back. "Look, I didn't put that there! The person who built it for us did! He said that every vehicle like that should have one! Told me that it's 'just in case'. I tried to tell him off, but no…he REFUSED!"

The woman pulled at her hair and screamed. "WHY AM I SURROUNDED BY IDIOTS?"

Butch did not answer that as doing so would result in some sort of physical punishment. The two floated upward in silence. Except when they reached the clouds.

"We're blasting off again!"

A star twinkled in the sky marking the place Team Rocket had disappeared to.

Mt. Moon

Lucif and Adair were happy to see their friends return safely. They had heard the plane exploding from they were at. After arriving back, Luna thanked Rowena for her help and recalled her back into her pokeball. Even after the mini celebration, Shadow had to ruin the moment in the form of a very familiar complaint. Since it was a happy moment, Luna did not bother smacking him. The girl even asked Salamence if she could carry them to the exit of the mountain, which she kindly agreed to. It did not take her very long to perform a couple of trips to and fro the summit. After performing that task, the dragon watched the human girl crouch in front of her and remove the bandage on her leg.

"There you go," Luna said, revealing the now healed leg. "Your burn's healed up."

"You know Luna, you're really something," Adair commented. "Maybe someday, you'll assist Nurse Joy at a pokemon center."

Luna chuckled at that remark. "Nah, I'm not much of a doctor. I would rather go around and see the world than mill around in a pokemon center."

Lucif smiled and glanced at the winding route behind them. Unlike the route on the other side of the mountain, which was almost covered in trees, this area was an open plain. There were a couple of hills, but other than that, there weren't any obstacles.

"We should probably be going. Cerulean City is just down this road. We should be able to reach there by nightfall."

"I thought you said we'll be there by lunchtime!" his cousin whined at him.

The copper-haired boy lifted his arms up and shrugged. "Well, we had a setback."

Luna smiled and looked into Salamence's great eyes. "Well Salamence, it was nice meeting you. You take care of yourself okay?"

Then, Salamence's smile turned into a frown. She then uttered a series of grunts, snorts, and cries at her. The dragon also nudged her on the chest, thus pushing her back a bit. Luna was confused by this and kept staring at the dragon.

"Um…okay…?" Adair said lifting an eyebrow up.

The other members of the group watched in confusion as Salamence nudged Luna. The pokemon could understand her, but they hoped the others would get the message. Actually, Pikachu and Aquos do not really have a problem with this sort of request.

Luna had a thought. She thought about it for a few more moments then decided to announce it. "Salamence, are you saying you want to come with me on my journey?"

Salamence pulled her head back and nodded eagerly.

Shadow immediately responded to this. "Oh ho no…that flying lizard is NOT coming with us."

At that insult, Salamence growled and blew a huge flamethrower on the boy with red highlights. Shadow screamed as his entire body was covered in flames. When the few seconds were done, Shadow was covered in soot, burns, and smoke. The others laughed when he coughed out black smoke.

The dimensional girl breathed a couple of times to stop her giggling. She then placed a hand on Salamence's cheek and smiled. "Thanks Salamence. But…I'm afraid I'm going to have to decline for now."

Lucif and Adair gasped in surprise at the same time. The soot-covered Shadow on the other hand smirked at her decision.

"What!? Luna! You're declining!?" Lucif gawked at the girl.

"Yeah. And for a couple of good reasons. We just had an exhausting battle today against Team Rocket. I want the both of us to be ready and not battle-weary," Luna explained.

"Uh huh. And?" the boy added.

"AND…I just don't feel ready yet. I've only got one measly badge. I don't exactly have enough experience yet. …I don't feel strong enough yet."

Salamence let out a sad cry and looked at her in the eyes. Luna was sad too. She put her arm around Salamence's head and hugged her for a moment. When she pulled back, her frown turned into a sad smile.

"But…I can promise you this. The next time we meet, we'll battle. We WILL meet again."

Aquos, who had walked up next to Luna, looked up to Salamence. "Vapor!"

With that said, the dragon smiled. Salamence leaned in forward and allowed Luna to wrap her in one final hug. Afterwards, the dragon watched her friend and future partner walk alongside her friends to the city beyond.

_Whew…that was a long one. The conclusion to the Mt. Moon camping trip is finally done! Luna is now on a straight shot to Cerulean City and her second badge. Well, it's tenth for Adair. Salamence is going to miss that girl, BUT…we shall see what the future holds for our heroes. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and Chapter 13 will be posted soon._


	14. Something Funny

Now for a gag…

_This is not part of the storyline. Also, it is not meant to offend any games…or characters. This is just something humorous I decided to put up. And, I noticed something in one of the previous chapters. I forgot to mention this, but the memory that Luna had about telling her dad about her school bullies was one of the memories she could remember about him. She was very young at the time. Sorry, forgot to mention that. Anyway, enjoy this little gag. *fixed a minor detail. Still the same plot though*_

Professor Oak walked inside the room that Luna stayed in some time ago. He decided that he would take a break on his job and do some late spring cleaning. He also did promise Luna that he would keep an eye on her things while she was away. So he decided to start with her room. Since it was a guest room, there was not really much in there. The mahogany dresser stood vigil in front of the untouched bed next to the window. Except for the bed, the dresser, the desk, and the nightstand were dull in color; a sign that they were covered in dust.

The pokemon professor walked over to the dresser and stared at Luna's belongings. It was not a lot of things, and Luna showed her neatness by placing them orderly on the desk. Her small black flip phone and its charger rested neatly in the middle of the desk. The screen in the middle of the cover was black and did not show any time, meaning that Luna must have turned it off before leaving or the battery ran out. The other was a box full of chocolate chip granola bars. Quaker Oats? Is that something from her world as well? However, something to his left caught his attention.

Professor Oak noticed that Luna had left one last electronic from her world. It was a blue and black object that was rectangular in shape. What was it called? Luna had never told him about this object. The man walked over to that side of the desk and picked up the tiny machine. He turned it over a couple of times and noticed the words "Nintendo DS" at the back. He then flipped the object so that the smaller bottom portion was facing him. There was some kind of green rectangular cartridge inserted in that slot. After seeing that, Professor Oak turned it over, facing up.

Curiously, Professor Oak opened the cover of the DS. Inside, there were two screens, one in the top portion and one below. There were two slits on each side of the top screen, most likely the speakers he assumed. There was also a small hole in the hinge. What its purpose was, he did not know. Situated on both sides of the bottom screen were a set of controls; an arrow pad, a set of lettered buttons arranged in a diamond fashion, and two buttons on the bottom labeled "Select" and "Start".

"I really should not be touching her things…" Professor Oak frowned.

He then turned his attention to the open door. He hoped that none of the boys would catch him touching someone else's things. The professor thought for a moment then looked down at the DS.

"Well…she isn't here. And a few minutes from doing chores wouldn't hurt," the researcher smiled.

With that said, he walked out of the room, went downstairs, and sat in the middle of the long green couch in the living room. Afterwards, while still holding the DS, Professor Oak flicked the switch on the side with his thumb. Doing so caused the screens to turn on; the top showing a blank white screen which then showed an animated title of "Nintendo DS", and the bottom screen with a warning note. The man in the lab coat pressed a random button and the screens transitioned to what seemed to be the main menu. He also noticed that the bottom screen showed options, a Pictochat, and other things.

Professor Oak furrowed his eyebrows in confusion when he noticed one of the smaller options. The larger option on the bottom showed the words "Start GBA game". He assumed that meant the gaming cartridge in the slot. Curiously, he pressed that option with his finger.

The screens turned black at first, then showed a few animated names that he guessed to be the creators of the game. Professor Oak gasped when the final screen played. There were two pokemon fighting each other in a forest; a Gengar and a Nidorino. He saw the two pokemon fight and felt some criticism build up when that Nidorino used tackle on the ghost type. Everyone knows that normal types do not have any effect on ghost type pokemon! However, there were other things to note about this game. Like the fact that the title "Pokemon: Leaf Green Version" was showing.

"Well…Luna was right. The things she told us about pokemon in her world were true…" Professor Oak said as he slowly processed this discovery.

His curiosity did not end there. The man pressed the start button to start the game. When he did that, a strange sound emitted from the speakers. He assumed that sound to belong to the Venusaur that appeared on the previous screen.

"Venusaurs do not sound like that!" he criticized the game. However, he wanted to investigate this thing further, so he proceeded on.

The screen then showed some warnings and instructions. Professor Oak pressed the A button like the screen said and skimmed through the pages, ignoring the Pikachu animation at the top. After reading those pages, Professor Oak felt a sense of nervousness when the instructions at the bottom read "Press the A button and let your adventure begin!" What other surprises were in store this time? Slowly, his thumb pushed the button…

Professor Oak screamed in shock and horror when he saw himself in the game. He could not believe what he was seeing. His digital doppelganger was there, wearing the same outfit he was wearing now and staring straight at him! Professor Oak gawked at his copy, who was now speaking to him through a text.

_"Hello there! Welcome to the world of __Pokémon__! My name is __Oak__! People call me the __Pokémon Prof__! This world (a Nidoran is sent out from a pokeball that appears out of nowhere on his hand) is inhabited by creatures called __Pokémon__! For some people,__Pokémon __are pets. Other use them for fights. Myself… I study __Pokémon __as a profession,"_ the copy silently mouthed.

"I can't believe this…this game actually knows about me! About this world!" Professor Oak said in shock.

His copy disappeared and was replaced by a boy clad in a red jacket, brown pants, and a red hat. To Professor Oak, this boy looked a little bit like Ash.

The text then read "_First, what is your name?"_

The screen then transitioned to a keypad with the animation of the boy next to a number of blanks. It took him a while to figure it out, but he had successfully filled in three blanks with the word "Oak". He pressed enter and the screen transitioned after the confirmation. Professor Oak screamed again when the next boy popped up. Coincidentally, that same boy happened to leave the kitchen and walk into the living room.

"Gramps, what's with all the screaming?" Gary said while wiping his hands with a dry towel.

He had finished washing the dishes and wanted to investigate what his grandpa was screaming at. It was even more of a surprise when Professor Oak saw that his grandson was dressed exactly like the boy in the game. Professor Oak nervously stared at his real grandson.

Gary saw what his grandfather had in his hands. "Hey, isn't that Luna's? What are you doing with it?"

"I…uh…well…I got curious so I thought I could fiddle around with it…and…um…" Professor Oak stammered, too shocked to completely tell him the truth.

"Did you break it? If you did then she's really going to explode!" the red head warned him with a serious look.

"No…it's not that…"

"Then what is it?" Gary walked over to where his grandfather was and stood behind him.

He leaned forward and placed his hands on the back of the couch. The boy first looked at his grandpa and then at the device he held. On one of the screens was the spitting image of himself. The boy could not help but scream. His hands that were once on the couch were now frozen next to both sides of his head.

"What!? But…that's me! How can that…!" Oak's grandson yelled at the sight. He then looked closer at the text that read "_This is my grandson. He's been your rival since you were a baby. …Erm, what is his name again?__"_ "This game knows what I look like but not my name!?"

Professor Oak pressed another button and the same name screen showed. Professor Oak filled in the blanks with the name Gary. The screen then transitioned again.

"_That's right! I remember now! His name is__ Gary!"_

Gary's doppelganger faded and was replaced by the boy in red. Gary was about to say Ash, but it did not exactly look like him. Instead, he kept quiet and let the texts roll.

"_Oak! Your very own __Pokémon __legend is about to unfold! A world of dreams and adventures with __Pokémon __awaits! Let's go!"_

With that said, the man pressed a random button and the screen turned black. The image of the boy turned white and shrank into the background. At the moment, Professor Oak quickly switched off the DS with the button on the side and slowly closed the lid. Both men's heads slowly creaked as they turned to look at each other. Total shock was visible on their faces. At the same time, a sweat drop slid down on their cheek.

"Gary…?" Professor Oak called, his voice shaking.

"Yes grandpa…?" Gary responded with that same shaky voice.

"…Let's not speak to anyone about this," the man nervously smiled.

"Speak about what?" his grandson quickly replied.

"Exactly!" he responded.

Professor Oak dropped the electronic on the couch as if it were some deadly weapon. The man then stood up and walked out slowly with his grandson. Hopefully, with time, they would forget about what they had just seen and that nobody would even think about turning that thing on. Well…that last part did not exactly work out.

The front door opened and the boy known as Tracey walked in. In his hands were a number of plastic bags full of groceries. He scanned the room, hoping to see at least Professor Oak or Gary. He found no one. Then, the small rectangular object caught his attention.

"Huh? What's that?" Tracey said. He put the groceries down and walked over to the couch.

The boy picked up the blue and black DS and opened it. He opened the lid then scanned the object for anything that would turn it on. Tracey found the on/off switch and slid it up. The artist stared at the screens and sat down to investigate this new discovery.

It seems the phrase "each day brings something new" was brought to a whole new meaning that afternoon.

…_Looks they just received the highlight of their life! So…what do you think? I wanted to try something new so I decided to post this. One of my past reviewers had asked this question and I decided to write a gag chapter about it to show my interpretation of what would have happened. Anyway, stay tuned for Chapter 13. _


	15. Trouble Begins

_Hey guys. Here's chapter 13. Now this chapter is going to be a little different because…well…because this chapter is about Team Rocket. I'm glad Mewtwo is not here otherwise he'd have my head for this. Hey, every story (well…almost every story) has some mention of the villains right? This chapter is going to be a little short though. Also, what you will read is by no means related to any religion. I made this story up so no religion comparisons. Also, I did my best on the poem as I am not a very good poet. Things in the pokemon world are about to get interesting… ;). Anyway, enjoy!_

Cerulean City

12:10 AM

The city of Cerulean. Home of the Cerulean City gym and one of the most beautiful cities in the Kanto region. For a city this size, most of it gets quiet at night, save for the downtown areas which are always alive. The lights from the buildings illuminate the night like fireflies and lighten the atmosphere. Most of the buildings stand tall, overlooking the city. Not all of them are like that though. Some of them are small.

Cerulean City also has a number of shops, restaurants, and other businesses. One of which is the Cerulean City Jewelry store, one of the most popular shops in the Kanto region, next to Celadon City. The shop was closed for the night; the lights were out and the doors were locked. In fact, the entire street was deserted. The shops lining both sides were closed. Even the traveling carts that dotted this part had closed signs pinned on their sides.

However, this quiet and dark night was disturbed by a bright ray of light which shone through the windows of the jewelry store. The light rays even illuminated the flower store across the street. Inside, the entire shop was engulfed in a bright blinding light. The source of it came from a small shard displayed in a protective glass case in the middle of the room.

The bright light died down after a minute or so. The light show in that part of the city faded. The rays the clear, diamond-like shard emitted faded until all was dark. No around the area witnessed the event.

However, up in the planet's outer atmosphere, a certain black satellite engraved with a red R symbol on the side detected the energy from that location.

Somewhere in the Kanto region

Team Rocket Headquarters

At the same time…

The man covered in the darkness of his office stared at the world outside his office. Out there, there was a multitude of trees; shadowed, flowing with the soft wind. Past the trees, the man could make out the lights and outlines of a distant city. At one point, that city was under his control. However, after some recent events that occurred a few years ago, Team Rocket was brought down to its knees by mere children. The Team Rocket boss scowled at those memories. He and this organization would be sure not to show any more weaknesses again.

Giovanni was about to slam his fist on his chair arm when the phone rang. The man clad in his usual orange business suit spun away from the window to the front of his desk. Scattered over the mahogany table were papers and folders about taxes, possible minor plans in the region, and some random research. To the top left corner were the usual office utensils and a flexible desk lamp, which he often left off while he did his private planning. The windows slightly covered in blinds adjacent to him served as his source of light, as the light source came from the outer courtyard of the base. Over on the opposite corner was the black landline phone that he had obtained some few years back.

Right when the phone rang and the tiny red light at the corner of the dial pad blinked, Giovanni placed his hand on the phone handle. Quickly, he picked up the phone and brought it to his ear, ignoring the spiral wire that swung a little.

"This is Giovanni. What is it?" he asked impatiently.

"Sir, our satellite just picked up an energy spike," a random grunt informed through the phone.

"Another shard?" Giovanni replied.

"Yes sir."

"Where?" the boss questioned.

There was a brief pause in the phone along with some slow breathing. This time Giovanni waited patiently for an answer. He assumed that his subordinate was tracking down the exact location of what they were looking for.

"Sir, it's in Cerulean City," the grunt replied.

Giovanni did not reply to that statement. The man searched through the papers littered on his desk and placed an overstuffed file folder on top of the pile. The folder had many papers in it, meaning that this plan was filled with lots of research and other data.

The evil businessman cleared his throat before replying. "Contact Agent 009. I would like to have a word with her."

The minion on the phone stammered. "Uh…sir? What about the shard?"

Giovanni slammed a fist on the table and gripped the phone harder. "That's an order!"

The Team Rocket subordinate stammered a reply. "Uh…yes sir! Right away sir!"

The call ended when Giovanni heard the sound of the phone drop followed by silence. The man sighed in irritation and reclined in his chair. A minute of silence passed and the man opened the top drawer on the left side of his desk. The contents inside consisted of small office supplies, however, there was one in particular that stood out. Giovanni picked up the dull red, spear-like shard from the drawer. It was small, about four inches in length and an inch across.

Right when the man closed the drawer with the shard in hand, the door from across the room opened. Giovanni looked forward and saw a female agent with golden curls step in. She was small, about half of his size, but was one of his best operatives. The girl closed the door behind her and strode forward until she was a few feet from him.

"You summoned me, sir?" she asked in a calm tone.

"Ah…Agent 009. I would like to speak with you about an important matter. It concerns the shards and the further goals of this organization," Giovanni explained and folded his hands under his chin.

009 waited for a moment before replying. "And what would that be?"

Giovanni diverted his attention from the agent to the folder lying next to his arm. He placed his left hand on the file and lifted it closer to him. At the top of the folder was a title in big red letters, almost like they were stamped there. The title of the folder read "Operation: Forces of Nature". He then placed it down flat and looked at the waiting girl.

"009, did I ever tell you about how I came across this shard?" he inquired and picked up the red shard lying next to him.

The petite agent maintained her fixed expression and shook her head. "No sir. I don't believe you have."

The man nodded and turned to face the outside window, the back of the office chair facing the agent. "Very well…When I was a boy, I did some investigating through my wretched mother's treasure vault. While she was head of this organization, she had obtained numerous treasures related to legendary pokemon. None of them were of interest to me," he explained then looked at the shard in his hand. "Until this shard caught my eye. At first, I presumed it to be just an ordinary crystal. This object did not have a label nor any explanation on what it was. Curious as I was, I took it and kept it in my possession."

Giovanni fell silent afterwards, remembering that he had kept this shard ever since he was a boy. He never liked his mother; she always abused him and never showed him any respect. However, he was somehow grateful that she died without appointing the next leader of Team Rocket. As her son, he took her stead and made this organization what it is today. This shard and this organization were the only things that reminded him of his terrible mother.

Agent 009 stayed silent and Giovanni continued with his story. "For quite some time, this shard had remained as a desk paperweight. That was until about a year ago when this shard reacted. I was working on some other matters at my desk but was then blinded by the light that emitted from it. Thankfully, I did not lose my eyesight. I decided to look into the history of this shard, one my mother never did before," the man continued to stare at the one sometimes called Domino, who had now folded her hands over her chest. "During my research, I came across an interesting poem inscribed in Unown letters. The poem, recently discovered in the Ruins of Alph, was recited as such…"

**Long ago, before the beginning of time,**

**when everything formed in a vast night,**

**there existed twins Darkness and Light; **

**one of day and one of night.**

**For eons they ruled side by side,**

**until one day, greed blinded the brother of Light.**

**Their work stretched through many plains,**

**Darkness coveted all, an empire for him to reign.**

**Light fought to prevent this disaster,**

**a war had begun against the night's master.**

**Bound to the Light eternally by fate,**

**Darkness fought the twin, fueled by hate.**

**Time had passed as the war raged on,**

**Through worlds and plains, no victor had come.**

**Finally Light, with the last of its energy,**

**Sealed Darkness away for eternity.**

**The battle was won and Light was drained,**

**shards of its power fell onto this plain.**

**Weakened by Darkness' hate and rage,**

**Light departed, the beginning of a new age.**

Giovanni finished the poem and sighed, grateful that he had good memory. Domino stood there, an arm up and her thumb stroking her chin; a sign of deep thought. The boss allowed the amount of information to sink in to her brain. The chair diverted away from the window, now facing the girl.

"Darkness…and Light…," she muttered.

"It is also mentioned in the ancient texts that bringing all the shards together would summon this being of Light. It would make sense because its desire is to reclaim the remaining amounts of its power," Giovanni further explained.

"This being of Light…it's a pokemon?" Domino wondered.

The man nodded and smiled. "Indeed. That is, according to the legend. Whoever inscribed the legend on the walls must have been a seer of some sort. But that is not the important part. What matters is what this being can do; travel to various plains."

Domino realized what her boss spoke of. She could not believe it but then again, there are pokemon that are capable of performing amazing feats. "Plains…are you talking about traveling to other dimensions?"

"Precisely. But…this universe is vast. What if those dimensions also had inhabitants?"

"Sir, are you considering taking Team Rocket up to a whole new level?" 009 smirked and asked him.

Giovanni uttered an evil chuckle. "Now we are on the same page."

"So, once we have all the shards in our possession, Light will be ours to control. But what about Darkness? The legend said that it was sealed forever," the girl mentioned, confusion prominent in her tone.

Giovanni leaned forward, maintaining his cool expression. "I knew you would say something like that. Yes, Darkness has been sealed away. But you are getting ahead of yourself. Our main priority is to obtain the shards first. As for Team Rocket, we must take small steps before we can claim everything as ours."

The young agent put her arm back over her chest, returning it to the folded position. She lifted an eyebrow at his statement. "What are you saying?"

"I have heard of another organization that had tried to control the galaxy, which ended horribly for them. Their plan was a stupid one, possessing too many flaws. However, unlike them, we have resources available to us in other regions. They were foolish; we will not make those same mistakes."

Agent 009 thought of that. She had heard of an organization in the Sinnoh region that attempted to remake the universe in their own image by controlling legendary pokemon. Unfortunately for them, their plans were thwarted by a group of trainers. Some rumors spread about this group, saying that this team disbanded after their leader vanished without a trace.

"Agent 009," Giovanni started.

"Yes sir?" the girl stood straight up in attention, awaiting for whatever command he would say.

"I have a little job for you," the Team Rocket boss lifted the folder up and looked at it.

"I do plan to take over other worlds, but that process is a long one. Team Rocket must start small first. Currently, I have operatives in the Unova region that are working on an assignment involving some legendary pokemon. This assignment may require my presence in that region."

"But sir? What about the shards?" Domino stepped forward a little, surprised by her boss abandoning this current plan.

"Finding the shards is of upmost importance as well. Which is why I have decided to leave you in charge of that operation," Giovanni explained, staring at the flabbergasted girl.

"What? Me?" the shocked girl asked.

"Yes. Until this new assignment is deemed a success or a failure, you, Agent 009, are now in charge of that plan. This is an order from the head of Team Rocket."

Domino formed her hands into fists and stared down. She knew that when Giovanni sends out an order, no objections should follow. After a moment of silence, the agent relaxed her hands and let out a sigh.

"Understood sir…" was her only answer.

Giovanni nodded and the chair spun around to the window. "Good. This discussion has ended. You may leave now."

The young operative bowed in respect and made her way to the door. Giovanni smiled and pondered at what his next move will be. _"Soon…Team Rocket will finally blast off for the stars…"_

_And that's Chapter 13. It's short, but now we know at least some parts of Team Rocket's plans. Who are these mysterious beings? Where are the rest of the shards? Does Luna and Shadow have a connection with this? The answers will come in time. Keep guessing on who these beings may be, the answer will appear soon. Hope you enjoyed this little chapter and stay tuned for Chapter 14, the battle for the Cascade badge._


	16. Rivals

_**Auraninja: **__Hey guys. Me again. Sorry about the late post. I had an exam to prepare for._

_**Mewtwo:**__ Well, at least you used your time wisely._

_**Auraninja:**__ Dude…don't get me started. Personally, I would rather take biology than chemistry._

_**Mewtwo:**__ …Why am I here again?_

_**Auraninja:**__ Because you're here to tell them the disclaimer. That's why_

_**Mewtwo:**__ What!? Me!? That's your job!_

_**Auraninja:**__ Look, I'm tired and my brain's fried. I need a pillow…*yawns and leaves for the door*_

_**Mewtwo:**__ No! You get back here! *door shuts on his face* …*groans*…Well you heard the human. She doesn't own Pokemon or Shadow the Hedgehog or any of that other stuff she usually says. *teleports out*_

Cerulean City

May 29, 2010

10:32 AM

After encountering a slight delay in Mt. Moon, our heroes have finally arrived in Cerulean City. Two days ago, they encountered a Salamence who had been injured by Team Rocket. The first impressions went off to a rocky start, however the dragon type is now fully recovered thanks to Luna's help. Salamence returned the favor by helping both Shadow and Luna rescue their pokemon and defeat Team Rocket. Afterwards, Luna turned down the female dragon's offer of joining her team due to her insufficient experience and the stress that day. Now Luna is staying true to her promise and training to become stronger. Now that they are in Cerulean City, the way to the much anticipated gym battle is just around the corner.

"Man I am so psyched!" Luna clapped and cheered.

"Luna, that's the third time you said that today," Adair sighed.

For the past hour or so, the group had been walking down one of the main roads in the city. It was a busy day today; the streets were bustling with citizens and travelers, the shops were alive, and conversations were in the air. The streets were not full of people so the group walked alongside each other; Luna and Aquos in the middle, Adair on the left, and Lucif on the right.

The girl in the denim skirt laughed nervously. "Sorry. I can't help it. I mean, I'm going to get my second gym badge today! Well…assuming that I win that is."

"Took the words right out of my mouth," Lucif said.

In preparation for the gym battle, Luna and Adair spent the entire day yesterday training. Both trainers worked out their strategies, trained with their pokemon, and even battled against each other. Lucif knew better than to disturb trainers that were prepping for a gym battle. He mostly stayed out of the way and only bothered them when it was time to eat. Other than that, he spent that day sleeping in the pokemon center or observing the trainers battle.

"So Luna, you feel ready for this?" the older teen in the short brown jacket asked.

Confidently, Luna replied. "Heck yeah. I'm totally ready for this."

Adair smiled. "I am too. By the way, you remember who our opponent is right?"

"Of course," the girl answered. "It's Misty, Kanto's master water type gym leader. Also known as the 'Tomboyish Mermaid'."

Adair's confident expression turned to a mix of surprise and confusion. "Wait, tomboyish mermaid? Where'd you hear that?"

Luna's eyes widened. She knew from her pokemon gaming experience that each gym leader had a unique description about themselves. However, not everyone in this world knew about a gym leader's style and personality until they fight in a gym battle. The girl used some quick thinking and made an alibi.

"Um, I read it somewhere. I did some research on her yesterday."

"Research?" Adair lifted an eyebrow then looked down in thought. "Huh…maybe I should have done that."

Luna nervously chuckled. "Yeah, I wanted to prepare myself even more so I did a little research at the pokemon center. I heard she was tough so that's why."

"I see what you mean. If I were in your shoes, I would have done the same thing," the copper haired boy next to her agreed.

"Yup," she smiled. Luna let out a quiet sigh, making sure none of her friends heard. _"Geez, gotta be more careful next time."_

No one spoke for the next few minutes. At this point, they have already passed a few of the busiest intersections in the city. The group walked around passing pedestrians, stopped to admire the store items displayed on the windows, and even ate a few free samples from the food stands. That portion of the city ended when the park came into view just about a half a mile ahead. At this point, the buildings were getting smaller and the streets were becoming less busy. The park was surrounded by a few buildings and shops. Within the park, dozens of people and pokemon ran about playing or lay on the grass relaxing. It was pretty similar to the park in Pewter City, except it was slightly larger and more spacious.

"There's the park," Lucif said as they kept walking towards that landmark. "Just a walk through this place and we'll be right at the gym."

"It's not much farther now," Luna smiled. "It's too bad Shad's not here though. He could really learn something from this gym battle."

"Yeah," Adair agreed then scratched her head and looked up. "Um…remind me why he decided not to watch our battle?"

Lucif quickly answered that. "He told us that he was going to run an errand and would meet us back at the pokemon center in a few hours. Don't know what it is but it must be big to make him leave in such a hurry."

The young fifteen year old frowned and held her chin with her thumb and index finger. "Yeah. Well I hope he doesn't get into any sort of trouble."

Aquos had been listening to that and sighed in agreement. "Vapor."

Meanwhile…

Route 4, City outskirts

Unlike the main part of the city, the outskirts were pretty deserted. Save for the few homes, the few wooded areas, and some open plains, there was not really much here. However, Shadow did not come here to enjoy the solitude. He and Pikachu had come there for a reason and they were not leaving until their mission was done.

The boy growled after pushing a tree branch aside. He had been in the woods for the past two hours and his mission still came fruitless. It was a good thing he left the guitars at the pokemon center as they would only slow them down. The orange Pikachu was tired too; his ears were low and his feet were aching a bit. He did not know why his trainer decided to come out here. However, he knew better than to go against his judgment. Whatever his reason was seemed pretty important at the moment.

Shadow parted a portion of a bush wall when he saw it. The Mobian smiled, his search was not in vain. Just a few feet away, grabbing and eating the cheri berries from the bush, was a yellow and brown hedgehog-like pokemon. It was a small, secluded space; almost like a little glen where pokemon would hang out. The glade was circular and the trees only surrounded the bush walls. The light from the sun shone down onto the area with no interference. The creature's spiked back was to the south, where Shadow was. Sandslash did not notice the two stalkers as its attention was to the tiny fruits in the bush. To Shadow's standards, the pokemon was not that big. If he were in his true form, the ground type would be just a few inches shorter than him. Below him, Pikachu parted the bushes, but then closed the wall a bit to avoid being seen.

"Finally…I've found you," Shadow muttered.

The ultimate life form knew that he was not hallucinating the first time he saw the Sandslash. The day before yesterday, before they arrived in Cerulean City, Shadow caught a glimpse of this pokemon running through the bushes near the road. The others did not notice it, but he did. He never knew that there was a pokemon like him. The memory of Luna pestering him about his failed battle attempts in the field burned in his mind. When he saw this pokemon dash past the trees that day, he knew he had to catch it. Besides, if this mission was a success, he would then have the privilege of seeing Luna's surprised reaction.

"_Catching this pokemon would prove Luna wrong about me. I've seen the way she and the others battle. If I can catch this thing, then that would increase my chances of surviving in this world. Still…I wish I had something more of my taste. A gun, a motorcycle…heck even a freaking chaos emerald!"_ Shadow mentally complained.

The Sandslash stood on its pointed hind legs and swiped a tiny red berry with its claws. However, it did not land on its other paw, but rather landed and rolled to its left. The ground type let out a soft cry and went to it. By the time it bent low and picked it up, the pokemon heard a branch crack. Its ears twitched at that sound and it turned its attention to the intruders behind the bush.

Shadow wanted to smack himself. He should not have pressed onto the bush so hard. The boy growled and leapt into action. He jumped through the wall and faced the pokemon. Pikachu noticed this and followed, taking his place next to his trainer. Sandslash took a step back. From what it could take from the duo's determined looks, these guys mean business.

"So much for the element of surprise," Shadow mumbled.

"Pika!" Pikachu cried, ready for battle as he went down on all fours. His red cheeks were giving off stray sparks.

The gothic minstrel pointed a finger at the startled pokemon. "Pikachu, thunderbolt!"

The electric type's body became surrounded in a yellow field. With a cry, that same energy was released and the bolt stream flew. Sandslash was hit, but only stared blankly at the duo. Pikachu growled, putting more power into the attack. The brown hedgehog yawned and scratched its side with a claw. Pikachu stopped his attack and stared into the pokemon's eyes.

Shadow cursed to himself. _"God, I'm such an idiot…"_ The boy winced as the memory of Luna yelling at him for having Pikachu attack Adair's Steelix popped up.

The boy closed his eyes halfway. In a different view, his eyes would be flat lines with pupils in the middle; an expression that signifies witnessing a stupid event. That and the image of a sweat drop fell from his cheek.

"That didn't work…"

With that statement, Sandslash bent down and shoveled dirt. Using its claws and its speed, the pokemon dug tunneled deeper into the earth, escaping from the invaders. In a few seconds, Sandslash was gone from view, leaving only a ringed pile of dirt and flying earth in its wake.

"No!" he screamed. The boy ran to the newly made hole and stared into the shadows. "And I let it get away too…," Shadow said as he face palmed.

Pikachu closed his eyes and shook his head in disappointment. "Pika…"

Back with the others…

Cerulean City Park

As the quartet walked through the park, they could not help but notice a crowd gathering at one of the open fields at the left. It was not a very large crowd, as it was made up of about thirty people. The people were gathered around in a circle, witnessing some kind of an event. There was also a combination of cheers and boos from that place. Not only that, but the crowd kept getting bigger as each person walked by.

"Huh…wonder what's going on there," Luna wondered as she stared at spectacle.

Adair shrugged. "I don't know. Street performers maybe?"

"Here? Maybe. But I don't think it's a street performance," Lucif guessed. "Judging from the crowd's reactions and how they're positioned, I'm guessing there's some kind of a battle."

Luna did not respond to that. Instead, she walked down the mini slope towards the direction of the event. Aquos noticed this and followed behind her. If it were some kind of a battle, he did not want to miss out on the action.

"You're thinking about checking that out?" the one known as Adair asked, lifting an eyebrow up.

"Yeah. It wouldn't really hurt. Plus, I might learn something from this battle. It may even help me out later on today," Luna said without turning to face her.

"But what about the gym battle?"

"That can wait a little longer," she said in a slightly louder tone because she was farther away from them. "We're in no rush."

Adair let out a soft groan and turned to her cousin. Lucif looked at her and shrugged his shoulders. To her surprise, he walked ahead and followed her.

"Aw come on! Not you too!" Adair complained.

The ex-agent turned around and smirked. "Come on Adair. A few minutes delay wouldn't really hurt. I actually want to see this battle."

The younger cousin moaned and shook her head in disapproval. Afterwards, she joined Lucif and walked with him. "Fine…but just for a few minutes."

Within a few minutes, Luna and Aquos had reached the edge of the hyped crowd. Quickly, and politely, she squeezed past the various trainers and other spectators. Aquos had an easier time considering he was squeezing past their legs. After passing by two dark haired boys wearing yellow polos, most likely twins, Luna took her place at the inner wall. Not long after, Aquos, Adair, and Lucif stood next to her. Standing on both sides of the fifteen foot makeshift ring were two trainers and their pokemon.

"_Lucif's right. It's a battle,"_ Luna thought.

The combatant on the right was a Rattata, who stood ready in front of its trainer, a young boy with wild blonde hair who looked to be about ten years old. He was small for his age, nearly as tall as Luna at the shoulder. The boy had blue eyes, wore an orange hoodie and brown pants. He was gritting his teeth and staring angrily at his opponent.

To the other side was an older girl, about the same age as Luna only slightly taller. Her long red hair was tied up in a high ponytail. She wore a flowing yellow summer dress along with short orange leggings and flats. Slung over shoulder was a small sunshine yellow purse. Luna could not help but compare her to a flame because of how she was dressed. Standing ready on its, or rather her, hind legs, was a Nidorina.

"Rattata, use quick attack!" the boy ordered.

"Ra!" the purple rat cried. The normal type burst forward in a zig zag motion with blinding speed.

"Like that will do any good," the girl smirked. "Nidorina, end this with double kick!"

The pokemon obeyed her trainer with a "Nido!" Nidorina leapt forward into the air towards the oncoming Rattata. The tiny feet on the horned pokemon glowed white in a split second. When they did, Nidorina leaned back a little and kicked the rat twice in the face, stopping the attack in the process. The amount of force it was dealt pushed the pokemon backwards and collided with its trainer. The crowd gasped at this sight and a few peered a little closer to see if they were both okay. The boy let out a groan and Rattata was sprawled on his chest with swirled eyes.

"Whoa…that was harsh," someone said towards Luna's left.

"That Lydia's pretty good…" another added.

"_Lydia. So that's her name…"_ Luna thought as she observed the girl flicking her ponytail to her back.

The young boy slowly sat up and looked at his opponent. A smirk was etched across her face. The kid's expression quickly turned into anger at the sight of it. He held his defeated Rattata tight and quickly got up.

Lydia let out a chuckle. "See kid? I told you I'd win."

"My Rattata…," the boy said as he looked down at his pokemon. The Rattata stirred and let out a weak cry.

"Is totally weak. You think you can win a battle with that thing? Please…you and that pokemon are the same. You're both weak!" the teen retorted.

The boy's eyes filled with tears. With a sniffle, he turned and ran out of the crowd, ignoring those who tried to comfort him. Everyone stared at the arrogant trainer with faces of disapproval. Adair stared silently at her and Lucif shook his head disapprovingly. Aquos did not like this human, and especially the Nidorina who also had the same sort of personality. Out of all of them, Luna was affected the most. In the past, she had encounters with snobby and cocky people like her. She hated them, not because they were bullies that picked on her, but also because they do the same to others. Luna growled and clenched her fists, trying to control her anger.

"I've already defeated three trainers in a row. And here I am, now standing in boredom. Is there no other trainer here who will give me a worthy challenge?" Lydia announced with the same snobby tone.

Luna stepped forward, maintaining her cool, and faced her. "I will."

Lydia stared at her for a minute before breaking out into a hard laugh. "So you're the next challenger? Ha! It's another shrimp!"

The dimensional girl squinted a little at that remark. Luna hated bullies but being called by words such as short and shrimp really ticked her off. "What did you just say?"

The cocky trainer smiled. "Well, the shrimp has an attitude. Also, what's with the get-up? Don't you know it's a little too early for Halloween? And that skirt is repulsive!"

"Well you're one to talk. That dress makes you look like a hussy!" Luna insulted.

Lydia widened her eyes at that remark. At that moment, everyone in the crowd let out a combination of gasps and oohs. Even the surprised Nidorina could not help but growl threateningly at the trainer. Of course, in response, Aquos stepped in front of Luna, facing the opponents. Anyone who attacked his friend would get it from him.

Lucif palm faced and covered his eyes. "She didn't just do that…"

"Oh Luna…," Adair groaned and shook her head in disappointment.

Lydia's right eye twitched. "What…did you just call me?"

The pissed off Luna smirked. "You heard me you snobby witch." The crowd erupted in even louder reactions.

"Snobby witch!?" the bully yelled at her.

"Or would you prefer uptight hag?" Luna retorted and stepped forward a bit.

"Luna!" Adair screamed from Luna's left. "That's enough!"

"Stay out of this Adair!" Luna shot a glance at her friend then returned her attention to Lydia. _"This is personal…"_

Adair stepped back a little at that reply. Lucif patted her shoulder letting her know that he would take care of it. Like his cousin, he did not want to see this dispute continue, or get any worse than it already is.

"Hey, why don't we settle this in a peaceful and diplomatic way?" he suggested with a kind smile.

"Winning a battle is one thing but insulting a defeated trainer and their pokemon is way out of line! You don't deserve to be called a pokemon trainer!" Luna retorted.

Lucif hung his head in shame and frowned. "Well…I tried."

"You little pest!" Lydia shot back and pulled out a rectangular pink wallet from her tiny over the shoulder purse. She then flipped open the case and showed everyone the gray diamond-like boulder badge and the teardrop shaped cascade badge.

"I've got two badges already! The gym leaders were no match for me! I'm the better trainer!"

Luna scoffed. "Big whoop. You've just added another accessory to your case!" Lydia growled and snapped the case shut, nearly pinching her index finger. "Just because you've got a new badge doesn't mean you can insult other trainers!"

The red head stomped her foot and screamed. "You little shrimp! I'm going to take you down so hard, your pokemon won't be the only one in pain!"

"Finally, something I wanted to hear. Now I've got someplace to be so let's make this quick. One-on-one!" Luna announced the challenge.

"You're on!" Lydia yelled.

With that said, Luna walked over to the other side of the ring with Aquos following next to her. All around them, the crowd sounded into various little conversations. The air was now filled with uncertainty, surprise, and a hint of resolve.

"Wow, that girl's actually going to kick Lydia's butt…that's pretty gutsy," one boy said within the crowd.

"I hope she wins," a random girl whispered nearby.

"I don't even know why I stuck around to watch Lydia beat the heck out of the other trainers. It's time she gets a taste of her own medicine," another boy whispered.

"Yeah! This ought to be good," a younger kid cheered off to Lucif's right.

Adair moaned in disdain. "Does Luna really have to go through with this? Honestly, she could have just walked away from it."

Lucif turned and looked at her. "I know. She could have done that. But it's too late to stop her now."

"What!? Lucif!" the girl with goggles turned and gaped at him.

"Luna told us to stay out of this. It's useless to stop her because she'll just ignore it," the boy explained. He then thought about Luna blowing her head off in a rage in front of him. "Besides…If any of us get involved, we might have to deal with an angry fifteen year old for an entire night."

Adair growled and folded her arms over her chest. She stared at the pissed off Luna, who was now situated right across from the ring, ready to battle. Aquos sat next to her, staring at both the Nidorina and her trainer.

Lydia let out a short laugh and spoke. "I hope you're ready to lose Looney."

"The name's Luna!" the girl retorted at the insult.

"Whatever Looney. Choose your pokemon!" she demanded.

Luna snarled. She then dug into her pocket and reached for one of her pokeballs. When she felt for the one she wanted, Luna pulled out the ball and looked down at it. The girl smiled, knowing that she chose the right one. She pressed the button in the middle and the ball enlarged in a second.

"All right. Thorn! Let's teach this vixen a lesson!" she screamed as she threw the capsule forward.

The container split open when it was just a few feet from her, releasing a stream of white light. The light made contact with the grassy lawn and took form. Luna caught the now closed pokeball into her hand. When that happened, the light on the ground dissipated, leaving a Roserade. The grass type twirled once and spread his bouquet arms out, finishing his entrance.

"Rose Roserade!" he cheered. Afterwards, he put his arms down and stared at his opponents, analyzing the situation.

At that moment, comments of uncertainty erupted through the air. The crowd was very confused at this trainer's choice against Lydia's pokemon. Even Adair and Lucif were taken aback by this choice.

"Wha? Why did Luna choose Thorn? She should have gone with Rowena! At least she's a better matchup against a poison type like Nidorina!" Adair pointed out.

"I agree with you on that. But don't forget, this is Luna we're talking about. She must have a trick up her sleeve," Lucif mentioned.

She frowned and returned her attention to the standoff. "Hm…well I hope whatever Luna's plan is works. …To be honest, I want her to win. From what I could learn from the past few minutes, this Lydia is a pretty bad nut."

"Let's just see how this battle goes," the boy replied. The two cousins quieted down, watching and waiting for the battle to unfold.

It took a while for Lydia to come up with a sentence. "A grass type? Seriously?"

"Do not be deceived Lydia. Going by types won't always win a battle," Luna spoke as if giving a lecture.

"And neither will talking! Nidorina, fury swipes!"

"Nido!" the pokemon cried.

Nidorina ran up to her opponent on all fours at first. The claws on her short arms glowed white. Once she got close enough, Nidorina stood on her hind legs and went in for the first scratch.

"Thorn, dodge them!" Luna yelled, staring at both of the pokemon.

"Rose!" Thorn jumped backwards and leaned in different direcitons, dodging every single one of Nidorina's fury swipes. Every advance the blue rodent took, Thorn took a step back.

"That Roserade of yours can't keep dodging forever!" Lydia blurted while observing the battle. "Keep using fury swipes until you hit it!"

"Ni! Do! Ni! Do!" Nidorina grunted while making quick swipes at the flower dancer.

Thorn dodged each and every one of Nidorina's attacks with grace. One by one, the pokemon executed a quick and glowing scratch attack, but only made contact with the air. This only fueled the pokemon's and her trainer's frustration. Lydia's frown turned into a devilish smirk, which also caught Luna's attention.

"Double kick!"

As commanded, the claws on Nidorina's arms ceased glowing and the little feet lit up with that color. Thorn was about to dodge the attack when the poison type leapt up and kicked him twice in the face. The force was so strong that the grass/poison dual type was pushed back by a significant distance, about a foot away from Luna and Aquos. Nidorina landed nimbly, feet now back to normal. Aquos could not help but let out a cry in worry.

"Rose…" Thorn let out a strained cry. He shook his head and touched his face with the red flowers, shaking off the pain.

"Vapor!" Aquos screamed, telling Thorn to keep fighting.

"Fury swipes while it's still stunned!" Lydia ordered.

Nidorina's claws glowed white again and ran up to the distracted Thorn.

"Thorn, dodge it!" Luna ordered with quick thinking.

The Roserade stopped shaking his head and opened his uncovered eye. Right when the pokemon was just inches from his body, Thorn leapt into the air. He spun horizontally once, like an ice skater would on an ice rink. Everyone, including Luna, could not help but marvel at the sight. Thorn landed in the middle of the ring, crouched at first and arms spread out, finishing his aerial dodge.

"Nido!?" his opponent looked behind and cried in surprise.

"Showoff…" Lydia snarled. "Use bite!"

"Nido!" Nidorina yelled, running up to Thorn with glowing fangs.

Luna smirked. "Grab her and bring her close!"

"Ro!" her pokemon obeyed.

At that moment, the pokemon outstretched his blue bouquet arm to the side and then in front of him. Two spiky green vines erupted from within the flower and ensnared the Nidorina around the body. The spines on the whips pricked hard into the somewhat soft hide of the poison type. Nidorina screamed in pain, unable to move and fangs losing their glow. Thorn obeyed his trainer and brought the pokemon closer to him until she was nearly a foot away.

"What the!?" Lydia blurted out, shocked by what the pokemon had done.

"Heh…," Luna let out a small chuckle. "Stun spore."

Thorn aimed his free arm at the pokemon and let out a sparkling yellow mist. Within a few moments, the cloud reached the struggling Nidorina. The poison type shut her eyes tighter and let out incomplete cries. Her body rendered immobile due to the pricking spines and the cloud that entered her body.

"Ni…," the pokemon cried once then jerked her head away, trying to regain mobility. "Do…"

"Now throw her behind you," Luna calmly said.

"Rose…" Thorn said, crouching down. "Rade!" He then flung her over his right in an arc.

Nidorina screamed as she was thrown forcefully. The tendrils around the pokemon loosened and retracted back into Thorn's flower arm. The rodent-like pokemon landed face first into the ground, just a few feet away from the now pissed off Lydia.

"Get up Nidorina!" Lydia ordered. The pokemon slowly lifted her face up and shook her head.

"Use petal dance while she's down!" the challenger said with an arm stretched out.

At that command, Thorn spun around and released an array of swirling pink petals. The attack surrounded Nidorina in a dome-like structure and covered her from everyone's view. Inside, the pokemon shrieked in pain as the petals scratched around the blue body. Thorn kept spinning around, not letting up in his attack.

Everyone commented on this strategy. They knew that grass type attacks are not very effective against poison types. Even Adair and Lucif were very confused at this.

"I don't get it. Why is Luna using an attack like petal dance? It's not going to do much against Nidorina," Adair turned to her cousin.

"Hm…I think Luna is well aware of that. Perhaps she's trying to weaken it," Lucif guessed.

The girl turned her gaze back to the battle. "Maybe…"

Back to the battle, Luna and Lydia were fixated on the scene. Nidorina kept shrieking inside the petal vortex. The flower bits sliced around and about the tiny body. Thorn did not let up in his attack, he just kept spinning around, and releasing an array of teardrop shaped petals. Luna's expression did not change. It was that of satisfaction and confidence. She was also enjoying the expression on Lydia's face, which was that of frustration and anger.

"I think it's clear on who's got this battle in the bag," Luna said, staring into the hard eyes of her rival.

Lydia snarled at that comment. After minutes of swirling petals and screams in the air, the vortex lightened up. Slowly, each petal dissipated into thin air and slowed until the vortex disappeared. A badly beaten and tired Nidorina struggled to get up from where it lay. Luna frowned at this and turned her attention back to Thorn, who slowly came to a stop. When he did, she and Aquos let out a gasp.

"Rose…rade…rose…," Thorn wearily said, stepping around aimlessly from side to side. His eyes were swirling due to the constant spinning.

"Oh crap!" she shrieked. Luna then groaned under her breath. "I completely forgot about that…"

Lydia could not help but laugh at her and her pokemon. "Well, looks all that spinning has confused your pokemon!"

Nearby, Adair shrieked and then rubbed her temples with two of her fingers. "Aw man…I was worried about something like that…"

"You know Adair…I was too. If used for an extended amount of time, petal dance will confuse the user," Lucif said, having the same expression as Adair.

Luna looked on to her confused pokemon. She called to him, trying to get his attention. But as she did, Thorn did not listen to her. He just kept stumbling from one side and going to the next.

"Thorn! Get it together!" Luna tried to reason.

"Por! Vaporeon!" Aquos cried, trying to call to him as well.

"Ro, ro, rose…" Thorn kept on saying, his red eyes still spinning in circles.

"Heh. The tide has turned," the red head's mouth creased into a sinister smile. "Nidorina, bite!"

Nidorina, who still bore the scratches from the petal vortex, found her footing and lunged forward on all fours. Like before, the pokemon's fangs glowed white. With a cry, Nidorina leapt into the air and came down onto the confused Roserade, biting into the grass flesh of his left arm.

"Rose!" Thorn shut his eyes and screamed in pain.

Luna took a step back, seeing that the tides had turned. "Thorn! If you can still hear me, try and shake her off!"

"Talking to it isn't going to work! Nidorina, bite it harder!" Lydia ordered.

"Do!" Nidorina's cry was muffled by the content in her mouth. The pokemon bit down harder, almost looking like the Roserade's arm would snap in two.

The grass type screamed even louder. However, even in his confused state, he had listened to his trainer flung Nidorina from side to side; slamming her hard onto the ground in attempt to shake her off. As Thorn did that, Nidorina did her best to maintain her hold on the grass type. With each swing, the poison type's grip loosened and tightened in a pattern. Just when it seemed like nothing would result from the attempts, Thorn's eyes shot open, the red pupils no longer spinning. His angry gaze was fixated on the Nidorina that was still latched onto his arm. With one final slam onto the ground, Nidorina released the appendage. Now free of that grip, Thorn jumped back twice, away from the sprawled out pokemon.

"Ah!" Lydia screamed at the sight.

"All right! Nice one!" Luna cheered.

"Poreon!" Aquos cheered as well.

"Thorn's back in the game!" Adair screamed in delight. All around her, the crowd erupted into cheers, happy to see the grass type back to normal and witnessing the tide turn again.

Lydia let out a scream of frustration. "Nidorina! Get up!"

"Ni…" the poison type tried to sit up from her sprawled position. Unfortunately, the stun spore from before came back and limited her movement.

"This battle's over!" the girl in the tomboy getup said. With a straight gesture of her hand, she gave out her command. "Thorn, hidden power!"

Thorn nodded and jumped into the air. Within seconds, bright green balls manifested around his body. There were at least about thirty or so pods surrounding the grass type in a sphere. Thorn stretched his arms out in front of him and sent the pods flying towards the stunned Nidorina.

"NIDO!" she screamed as the balls made contact with her body.

Each impact from the pods released bright rays of light, slightly illuminating the field. The pokemon screamed as each of the psychic infused balls hit her. Since Nidorina was a poison type, the pain was more severe. When the light and the balls disappeared, Thorn landed nimbly onto the plain and looked upon his opponent. Nidorina did not move anymore.

"Nido…" she let out a weak cry; her eyes now in the form of swirls.

At the sight of this, the entire crowd erupted into victorious cheers. The newcomer known as Luna had defeated the red-headed tyrant. Luna let out a sigh of relief, knowing that the battle was over. Aquos ran up to Thorn, who was wiping the sweat from under his cotton petals.

"Va! Vapor!" Aquos smiled up to the Roserade.

"Roserade!" Thorn returned with gratitude.

The Vaporeon lifted his tiny paw up as if he wanted to shake hands/flowers (you know what I mean). The Roserade saw this and put his bouquet hand under the paw. After performing a friendly hand clap, they ran up to Luna who had already crouched down to hug both of her pokemon.

"Luna! That was awesome!" Adair congratulated as she ran up next to the now kneeling girl.

Lucif followed close behind. "You and Thorn did a pretty good job there. Clever thinking, using Thorn's stun spore to slow his opponent down and using his speed and power to tire her out."

"Thanks. Thorn's hidden power was a psychic type move. I didn't want to use it in the beginning because I wanted to weaken Nidorina first. Plus, I wanted to end the battle with a bang…er…pops," Luna looked up to them to her right and scratched the back of her neck.

"Well, whatever the case, you won anyway!" the girl in the brown jacket replied.

Luna smiled at her friend then turned her attention to the middle of the field. Lydia knelt down and lifted Nidorina. Afterwards, she stood up and stared at the winner, flames replacing the black color in her eyes. Luna's grin turned into a frown; anticipation replaced the happy mood from before. The crowd's cheers died down as the two girls stared at each other.

"This wasn't how the battle should have turned out! I'm the better trainer!" Lydia screamed in rage.

"Too bad Lydia. I won. You need to accept that," Luna calmly told her while keeping her anger in check.

Lydia turned her back to her and ran through the crowd, Nidorina cradled in her arms. "This isn't over Looney!"

Luna smacked her head. "It's Luna you bi-!"

Adair quickly put her gloved hand on Luna's mouth, interrupting the insult that was about to pour out. The girl looked up at the older trainer and noticed her shaking her head saying 'no'. Luna closed her eyes and sighed. Her mouth was muffled, but Lucif and Adair understood when she tried to say "Fine."

At this point, the crowd was dissipating. The people separated off into different directions, returning to whatever business or action they were doing before Lydia came along. Adair released her hand from Luna. When she did, she gave one final hug to Thorn before returning him to his pokeball.

"Come on, we've got a gym battle to get to," Lucif said as he started walking away towards the raised part of the field.

Luna, Aquos, and Adair looked at each other and smiled. Adair followed close behind her cousin while Luna and Aquos ran after them.

Back at Route 4…

It took Shadow and Pikachu quite a while but they finally tracked down the same Sandslash. Both human and pokemon slowly rose from behind a bush to investigate the sounds nearby. When they did, they saw Sandslash scratching away at the base of a tree, training itself. The tree base bore a series of scratch marks, most of which were deep and long. Like before, the pokemon's spiked back was facing the duo.

Shadow looked down at Pikachu who was also looking up at him. The human gave him a nod and gestured over to the pokemon. The electric mouse nodded in reply and quietly crawled through the brush. He slowly pushed the tiny branches aside, making sure not to make a sound. Once he was out of the brush, Pikachu went down on all fours, ready to battle. Tiny sparks from his red cheeks flew out.

Shadow quietly and coolly gave out his command. "Skull bash."

"Pi…" Pikachu cried as he stored energy for the launch. The strength inside him swelled and reached its limit. When it did, the pokemon shot forward, straight for the unsuspecting ground type. "Ka!"

Sandslash picked up that sound and turned around. When it did, it saw the same Pikachu from before rocketing towards him. The brown hedgehog sidestepped to the right and avoided the attack. Pikachu, since he had built up so much energy, could not stop in time. His head made contact with an untouched portion of the tree with a loud bang. The impact caused some of the leaves from the braches to fall abruptly.

Shadow stared in shock. He's been out here for hours and nothing successful came up. Does EVERY trainer go through something like this when trying to catch a pokemon!? He palm faced and moaned as Pikachu slowly slid face down onto the ground.

"Pika…" the pokemon weakly cried as his eyes swirled in circles. Because of the amount of power he built up and the thickness of the tree, Pikachu had basically given himself a headache. The situation got even more embarrassing when one of the leaves fell on his head.

After laughing at the sight, Sandslash curled into a ball and rocketed towards the disappointed Shadow. Within seconds, the pokemon jumped forward and knocked him to the ground. Shadow screamed from the spines that hit his face and the force of the rollout attack. The boy fell and lay sprawled on the ground. Sandslash quickly rolled away from the scene, letting out cries of laughter.

Shadow's vision blacked out, but he was still conscious. Like Pikachu, his eyes were now in the appearance of swirls. A huge dark circle was visible all over his face, marking the spot where Sandslash hit him. Not only is he in a state of pain, but he also has a headache.

The boy moaned. "We need a new plan…"

"Pika…" Pikachu lifted a paw up in agreement.

_And that ends part one of the stay in Cerulean City. I know I promised to have the gym battle in this chapter, but I decided to put the entire battle in the next one. Also, the gym battles will be two separate chapters, as they encompass Luna and Adair's attempts. Another note, the map of the Kanto region is based off of the games. I am thinking of adding a few of the locations from the anime into the story, but overall, the setting will mostly encompass the map from the games. Anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter and stay tuned for Chapter 15: Luna vs Misty!_


	17. Battle - Cerulean City Gym Part 1

_Hi guys! I'm back…from the dead! As I promised, here is Luna's second gym battle. It's a little early to mention this but I am also in the process of creating a soundtrack to go with the story. I will post the songs that I have so far in a later chapter. When I do, please let me know if there are any songs I should keep or replace. So, without further ado…let's get on with Chapter 15!_

_Previously on Pokemon Rising Champions…_

_Our heroes finally arrive in Cerulean City after spending some time in Mt. Moon. While Luna, Aquos, Adair, and Lucif head on over to the Cerulean City gym, Shadow and Pikachu temporarily depart to perform an "errand". Unbeknownst to the gang, this errand involves trying to catch a Sandslash that Shadow witnessed two days ago. Unfortunately, his attempts at catching the ground type aren't going very well. Back in the city, the others encounter a pokemon battle taking place at the city park. There, they meet a tough, and snobby trainer named Lydia. She had defeated a young boy in a battle and called her opponents weak…which angered Luna. Luna steps up to Lydia, who was asking for a challenge. The confrontation between the two turns into a battle, where Luna successfully defeated her new rival with Thorn the Roserade. With her reputation and personal record stained, Lydia retreats with the promise that she will defeat Luna. Now the group heads off to the Cerulean Gym to face off against the water type master, Misty._

Cerulean City Gym

12:20 PM

No one said anything about the sight. They stood there in front of the peculiar building. This building circular in shape, had a dome on top, and had a large image of a smiling Dewgong above the entrance. The dome was similar in design to a circus tent, due to the alternating colors of yellow and pink. At the base of the dome, going around the entire gym, were tidal waves. Windows lined around the gym, looking more like mirrors and smooth like the water surface. The entire building structure also had blue and white spiral columns, which matched the colors of the waves on top. Finally, the name "Cerulean Gym" was plastered below the Dewgong in large red letter.

Luna let out a low whistle. "Fancy," was all she said.

"How about too fancy?" Adair said next to her. Her face was that of slight disgust. "So much pink!"

"Now now," says Lucif. "We're here for a reason. Let's not let this outward appearance become a distraction."

With that said, all three humans and Vaporeon traversed down the path towards the gym. Upon arrival at the double doors, Luna gulped and placed both hands on the golden handles. She tugged at the doors with some effort and it opened.

This building was indeed huge. If whoever designed the outside overdid the design, they surely made up for it on the interior. It was much more subtle, although the walls still retained the pink coloring from outside. In front of them were a set of double doors, which Luna guessed led to the large pool area that would be the site of her upcoming battle. Unlike the gritty theme of the Pewter City Gym, this place seemed much more formal. Even the blue tiled floors were spotless.

Actually, Luna did catch the scent of bleach. And Lysol? No wait…this world doesn't have that name brand. But it does smell like it. That same scent was in the air though. And the floors did look somewhat wet. There were even some yellow stand-up signs saying the floor was wet.

After looking around, the group laid their eyes on someone who was cleaning the premises. They assumed it was the janitor, but they were far from it. This boy wore a green shirt, pink shorts, and kept his black hair up with a very distinct headband.

"Tracey!?" Luna called with a slight laugh in her voice.

"Vaporeon!" Aquos even called out his name with a smile.

The boy stopped mopping the floor and looked at the group close to the entrance. Like Luna, he too had a look of shock.

"Luna? Aquos? What're you doing here?"

"Second gym badge," she chuckled. "Why else?"

"Oh yeah…that's right. I'm guessing your first battle went well?" Tracey asked after he walked up to them.

The young girl was about to reply but was then interrupted by the elder girl next to her. Adair had surprised Luna by putting an arm around her and brought her in for a tight squeeze. She made a huge grin when she did it and ignored the gasping of the 15 year old.

"Sure did! Did so with flying colors!" Adair laughed. "Well, it was more like dumb luck…"

Luna gave her a stern look, telling her to be quiet about that. She then gasped. "…dair…can't…breathe…"

When she let go, the dimensional traveler gasped for breath and bent down. While she recovered, Adair laughed sheepishly. Even Lucif gave her a stern look before returning his attention to the guy up front.

"Heh…sorry."

The girl sighed. She then gestured to the two friends next to her with hand motions. "Okay…that's better. Anyway, these are my friends: Adair, and her cousin, Lucif."

Lucif waved at him. "Nice to meet you."

Tracey replied with a nod. "Same."

The 18 year old girl put a hand on her hip. "So…how do you know Luna and Aquos?"

The boy cleared his throat. "Oh yeah. We met some time ago. You see, she-."

He was cut off by a quiet grunt from Luna. Like Adair, she gave him a stern look, telling him to be quiet about her. Tracey knew what she was going for. She did not want her friends to know that bit about her, since they might not take her origin story very well.

Tracey gulped. "She first came to Pallet Town some time ago to start her journey, like every trainer. I was there at the time and we quickly became friends. It was also thanks to me that she and Aquos are now close."

"Huh?" Adair lifted an eyebrow. Aquos even looked at her when she did that. The girl stared at the pokemon for a moment before looking at Luna. "Now close? You mean you two weren't close before?"

Luna put a hand behind her head and laughed nervously. "Uh…yeah. Aquos is my first pokemon, but how we met was kinda…well…the thing is, when I first met Aquos, he didn't exactly trust humans that well. He kind of sprayed me with a cold water gun when I got a little close to him."

The girl stared at the pokemon next to her and he gave her an apologetic look.

Lucif laughed. "He really did that?"

The girl wearing the Jack Skellington shirt nodded. "Yeah, but after some…certain events that happened at Professor Oak's lab, Aquos and I became friends and he even became my first pokemon," she replied and succeeded in avoiding the mention of Team Rocket.

"But enough about that. Where's the gym leader? I would like to challenge her," Luna said next.

"Um…" Tracey said and was about to reply when he was interrupted by another person. This time, it came from behind him.

"Excuse me. I heard someone say something about challenging me."

All three guests looked around Tracey just to see a girl around the same age as Luna walk up to them. This young woman wore a pale yellow vest and a sleeveless jacket, had a dark blue button and a collar of the same shade. She even had yellow shorts and a red leotard under her outfit, wore bright orange high-tops, and white socks. But the most distinct feature about her was the fact that she had her orange hair up in a single ponytail to the side.

All of them, including Tracey, stared at her when she stood in front of the newcomers.

"…yeah…um that would be me," Luna replied shyly. She was still getting used to the fact that the characters she grew up with in one of her favorite TV shows were now actual people.

"Us Luna!" Adair corrected with a finger up.

"Oh right. Us."

The girl cleared her throat and introduced her friends respectively. "I'm Luna. That's Adair, Lucif, and the little guy next to me is Aquos."

Right when she mentioned Aquos, Misty looked down at the pokemon and starts appeared in her eyes. Her mouth fell open and she started to squeal like a little girl. To add to everyone's surprise, Misty jumped up and down, picked up the Vaporeon, and started squeezing him to death.

"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh! He is so cute!"

Everyone watched as the gym leader showed her affection to the poor, suffering pokemon. The aquarian mammal, tried to break free of her embrace, but the grip she had on him was too much. Like Luna earlier, he started gasping for air. His vision was even starting to blur a bit.

"Misty be careful! You're suffocating him!" Tracey, who had a worried look, told her.

Right when he said that, Misty released the poor pokemon. Aquos landed nimbly on the ground and gasped for air.

"Sorry about that," she giggled. "I get really crazy whenever I see water types. They're…kind of my thing."

"That's alright," Luna accepted her apology.

"So I heard that you know Tracey?" Misty wondered.

"Yeah, he and I met some time ago."

Misty's face gleamed. "That's great! Any friend of Tracey's is a friend of mine!"

Luna smiled at that. "Anyway, we're here for a gym battle."

The girl with orange hair broke out of her cheerful trance. "Oh right! Sorry to keep you waiting. Follow me!"

With that said, all three trainers, Tracey, and Aquos followed the gym leader. They followed her through the set of double doors and stepped inside the main room. Luna had seen this room before in the anime, but being inside the actual one was still amazing. All of them marveled at the set-up of the gym area. Both sides of the gym had pale bleachers that were on top of glass aquariums. They did not see anything through those windows, but they guessed that each exhibit held a specific water-type pokemon. The main part of the room was the battlefield itself, which was a large swimming pool with four small circular platforms on each side. As for where the trainers would be, there were two orange poles on each side. Each pole had a viewing platform with a barrier to prevent anyone falling off and the end of the platform ended with a diving board. The other opening to the platform was the ladder, which would allow the trainer to climb up the thirteen foot tall pole.

Misty, who had run over to the right side of the gym within two minutes, and had already scaled the pole, stared down at the trainers with crossed arms.

"So!" she hollered. "Who wants to go first?"

Luna and Adair looked at each other. After a moment, the eldest trainer made her way towards the stairs, up to the bleachers on the right of Luna.

"You go first Luna!" she said as she went up the steps with her cousin.

"Okay!" she agreed. She then looked down at Aquos, who had sat next to her, with a determined look.

"Let's do this thing."

The pokemon nodded and let out a cry of agreement.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It did not take very long for Luna to get to her side of the gym. When she made it up that final rung, she breathed heavily and took a minute to regain her composure. This was her second gym battle after all. As for Aquos, there was a special elevator within the pole at allowed pokemon of his size to make it to the top without going through the trouble of climbing. Luna was a little jealous of the "special treatment" her pokemon got, but she brushed it off as she had more important things to focus on.

According to Misty, the usual referee had called in sick that day and could not make it. So, Tracey had volunteered to be the referee. Neither of the trainers had a problem with that. The boy soon took his place in the middle part of the balcony where the bleachers were. His platform was set up just like the combatants in the field, except there was no diving board. When he stepped up, he waved the green and red flags once and then pointed them on both sides of the gym. Luna, who was the challenger, was green while Misty had red.

"The battle between Misty, the gym of leader of Cerulean City, and Luna, the challenger is about to begin! Each trainer is allowed up to two pokemon for this battle and only the challenger may substitute their pokemon. The trainer that defeats both of their opponent's pokemon will be declared the winner. Trainers, choose your first pokemon!" he called out.

The young woman with orange hair smirked. She reached into one of her side pockets and pulled out a tiny pokeball. With a press of the button, the ball enlarged. Misty kissed the ball and maneuvered her body into a throwing position.

"Let's get this underway," she said and threw the ball into the pool. "Go! Starmie!"

When she called out the pokemon's name, the pokeball split open and the bright light streamed out. The light descended onto the top right platform and manifested into an odd looking starfish. The pokemon was colored purple and had ten arms, where the backing looked like an extra set. The middle of the being was a bright red jewel that looked like it was embedded with a yellow plating.

With a jump, and a spin of its back arms, the pokemon let out a karate cry before landing nimbly on the platform.

When Luna saw the Starmie, she immediately reached into her pocket, trying to find Thorn's pokeball. She knew from her basic pokemon knowledge that water types were weak against grass types. The girl was about to bring out her grass type pokemon when she realized another crucial detail. Psychic types were every poison types' nightmare. That and bringing out Thorn after her recent battle with Lydia would not be such a great idea.

The girl grabbed another pokeball, enlarged it, and then threw it above the swimming pool.

"Alright, go for it Rowena!"

When she did that, the ball opened and the white light from within manifested into a familiar purple and pink rag with a witch's hat. The pokemon floated down to the surface of the pool and the pokeball was returned into Luna's open hand.

"Mismagius…" the ghost type let out a taunting cry.

Everyone, except for Luna and Aquos (he was somewhat surprised at this action, but respected his trainer's decision), were confused as to why she sent out a ghost type rather than a grass or electric type. Even Misty could not help but lift an eyebrow up. She even took a step back at the sight.

"Huh?" was her reaction. "A Mismagius?"

Over at the bleachers, Adair could not help but say the same thing.

"Wha? Why did Luna send out Rowena? Wouldn't Thorn be a better option?"

Lucif, who sat on her left, nodded at that statement. He shifted in his position, going from both legs together to his right leg over his left. It did not take very long for him to understand why Luna had chosen this pokemon rather than one with more of an advantage.

"Yeah, but remember what happened today? Thorn had already gone through that recent battle against Lydia and her Nidorina. If Luna sent him out now, then he would not be fully ready for the battle. And a pokemon that is still exhausted from a previous battle would not fare well in another one, unless he had enough time to rest."

His cousin crossed her arms over her chest. "I guess there's that. But why Rowena?"

The boy glanced at her before focusing back at the battlefield. "I guess we'll have to wait and see. Like I said before, this is Luna. And she's got her own style of battling."

Back at the battlefield, both trainers awaited the command from the referee for the battle to start. Thirty seconds had already passed and the wait was really suspenseful. Finally, Tracey had broken out of his surprised trance and crossed both flags across his chest.

"Are both trainers ready?" he announced.

Both girls nodded and looks of determination became evident on their faces.

"Very well…Since Luna challenged Misty to a battle, she gets the first attack. Now, let the battle begin!" Tracey yelled, lifting both flags up in the air before returning them back down.

"Right then…Rowena, shadow ball!" she yelled, starting the battle.

Rowena floated a little higher and with a cry, unleashed a medium-sized shadow ball at the Starmie. When the ball of dark energy was a couple inches away from the pokemon, the living star sidestepped to the left, completely avoiding the attack. Luna was a little surprised at this, but brushed it off and ordered Rowena to attack until one of the shadow balls hit. Unfortunately, the water-type was too graceful and fast that none of the shadow balls seemed to be hitting it. To the young trainer, the best way to describe this maneuver would be like a water ballerina…with ten arms.

"My god…this thing's fast," the girl could not help but utter.

Even with her large effort in shooting those shadow balls and with the great speed she had, Rowena was already showing signs of fatigue. The cries she emitted started to have small gasps in between. There was even a small sweat drop falling down the side of her face. Finally, her opponent made its move.

"Alright, Starmie use Ice Beam!" the gym leader ordered.

Starmie dodged another shadow ball and a tiny blue sphere glowed at the top arm. With a karate cry, the arm bent forward, and a light blue bolt shot out.

"Dodge it!" Luna yelled.

"Magius!" the rag said and gracefully spin dodged to the left.

She may have dodged that one, but little did the pokemon know that a second beam headed straight for her. By the time she noticed it coming, the attack hit her straight in the chest.

"Mismagius!" she screamed and was pushed back a couple of feet.

"Rowena!" Luna gasped.

"Poreon!" Aquos screamed as well, worried at his friend's state.

Thankfully, when the attack stopped, the Mismagius was not frozen. The ghost type shook off the attack and smiled, signaling that she was alright.

"Ice beam again!" Misty commanded.

This time, Luna was ready for the attack. She smirked and gave out her own command.

"Dodge it then use psychic!"

The blue bolt went straight for Rowena again, except this time, the purple rag floated upwards. The attack passed without interruption below. After the attack, the pokemon's eyes glowed blue and the entire opponent's body glowed the same color.

"Mismagius!" she cried and lifted the now squirming pokemon up in the air.

Luna knew that this attack would not do much against a psychic type like Starmie. But she chose this move just to deal some damage to it. When the opponent was high enough, Rowena used her attack to slam the pokemon three times on the same platform. With each slam, the pokemon let out a grunt, each one getting louder. After the third, Rowena psychically threw the pokemon towards the center of the pole. It landed with a loud grunt and stayed suspended in that position.

"Now use Thunder Wave!" Luna yelled.

The ghost type obliged and her body became covered in an electric blue aura. With a cry, a series of blue bolts shot out from her and made contact with the water type. The star screamed and squirmed where it was. The sensation was as if a thousand needles piercing all over it.

After Rowena ceased her attack, the opponent weakly floated down towards the bottom right platform and landed. When it did, the pokemon fell down on one leg and blue sparks surged through its body. Starmie shook, and Misty inhaled sharply at the state her pokemon was in. Luna smirked, knowing that this was what she wanted all along.

Nearby, Adair could not help but cheer.

"It…it's paralyzed!" Adair realized and grinned. "That was Luna's plan the whole time!"

Lucif smiled as well. "And a perfect one too. Starmie are known to be among the fastest pokemon in the world. Luna needed a way to slow it down, so she dealt a certain amount of damage to it before making it paralyzed. And bringing out Thorn would bring out the same results, but doing so would mean putting him at a greater risk. Clever girl…"

Luna laughed, knowing that her plan had worked and victory was getting close. With a swiping hand gesture, she gave out another command.

"Now use Shadow ball!"

At that command, Rowena unleashed a series of shadow balls onto the stunned Starmie. The pokemon screamed as each ghostly ball made contact with its body. The balls exploded on contact and soon created a smoky cloud that covered the pokemon. Misty recoiled in horror as her pokemon suffered from the ghost pokemon's attacks.

"Starmie! Hang in there!" she screamed, gritting her teeth. She furrowed her eyebrows and stared into the eyes of her challenger. "Use Thunderbolt!"

The black-haired girl widened her eyes and stared at the gym leader before turning her attention to the water-type. From out of the black cloud came a yellow electric bolt that came straight towards another shadow ball. Once it made contact, the ball grew large in size before exploding into a cloud of smoke. Rowena, who was now trapped in that smoke, ceased her attack and looked around, trying to find the purple star. However, once she saw its silhouette, another electric bolt was emitted from the top arm and hit Rowena in the chest.

"Mismagius!" Rowena cried in pain and was pushed back towards the trainer's pole. Her impact resulted in a loud thump and remained motionless for nearly thirty seconds.

Once the cloud cleared, the Starmie still remained on the platform, still in its paralyzed state. The blue electric sparks still ran through its body. At the same time, Rowena managed to float out from the pole and onto a platform. One of her eyes were closed and she breathed heavily. Not only that, but there were black burn marks all over her.

Everyone could clearly see that both pokemon were tired and were very close to collapsing. Both contenders watched as their pokemon rested from the round they were in. Misty stared at her pokemon for a few moments more before turning her attention to the trainer across from her.

"You're not bad for a new trainer," she commented.

"Thanks…you're not so bad yourself," Luna replied.

"This battle isn't over yet…" Misty smiled and with a motion of her hand, gave out another command.

"Starmie, recover!"

Right when the gym leader said that, the pokemon in front of her began to glow. The Starmie became covered in a golden aura with some sparkles over its wounds. As it uttered its chant-like cry, all of its wounds started to disappear.

Luna gritted her teeth and groaned. Back in her dimension, there were times when she would play against players online and they would have Starmie's that used that move. Now that she had seen this move in action, she immediately switched to a new plan.

"Nice trick. But we've got one too," she said. "Rowena, Pain Split while it's still recovering!"

Rowena nodded and uttered a low "Magius."

At that moment, the two long ribbon-like tendrils that served as her arms glowed blood-red, as if they were gigantic blood vessels. Then, they elongated and shot towards the healing water/psychic type. The ribbons wrapped around the now surprised Starmie around its main body, like a bloody chain. Immediately when that happened, the pokemon's golden aura became mixed with hints of crimson and started to hurt it. The ribbons quickly sapped Starmie's energy and flowed towards Rowena. The phantom's wounds rapidly faded and she could feel new energy flowing through her. At the same time, her opponent was in complete agony. This had gone on for another minute before Rowena decided to let go. She retracted her tendrils and both pokemon's auras died down. Now the new playing field had been set, with a rejuvenated Mismagius against a fatigued Starmie.

Misty, Lucif, Adair, and even Aquos were surprised when this sort of thing happened. Never before had they seen Pain Split in action. All of them had wide eyes and stared in awe at the two pokemon in the stadium.

"No way!" Misty shouted. "I've never seen that move before!"

"Hey Luna! I didn't know Rowena knew Pain Split! When were you going to tell us?" Adair yelled at her.

Luna did not even glance at the trainer, not wanting to break her concentration. "Didn't know how to tell you guys. I recently found out too. I figured the best way would be to show you in a battle!"

The green-haired girl went again. "Did you do some kind of secret training before we left?"

"Talk later! Got a battle to finish!" the young teen replied and ended the conversation.

"She's right!" Misty punched the air with her right hand and gave out a command. "It's time to finish this. Starmie, surf!"

The purple star let out a cry and its body glowed blue. When that happened, a huge wave formed from behind it and surged forward, engulfing the platforms and growing to up to ten feet in height. Starmie jumped backwards and landed on the crest, riding the wave to Rowena. The wave was fast, coming at Rowena in just a matter of seconds.

"Rowena, dodge it!" Luna commanded at the last second.

The wave came within a few feet of Rowena and the ghost immediately floated up. Starmie looked back and watched the ghost spin in the air and stop just behind the water-type. The pokemon was forced to stop its attack and jumped to the top left platform. As for the wave, it crashed onto Luna's side of the field and completely drenched that area. Thankfully, the water did not hit the trainer, but Tracey would need to clean again.

"Thunderbolt!" Misty ordered.

Starmie turned around to its opponent and once again, the tip of its head glowed yellow. The familiar bolt of lightning then surged forward and headed towards Rowena.

"Use psychic to deflect it!"

Rowena's eyes glowed blue and she chanted a low "Mag…" The bolt that should have made contact with the ghost type was instead deflected from the invisible shield. The bolt split in two and hit both the north side bleachers and even the bleachers where the other humans were. Lucif, Adair, and Tracey screamed as the bolt came towards them. Tracey had to crouch down just to duck while Adair merely jemped to the left and fell on the floor. Lucif just fell flat on his seat and watched the bolt strike the top seats. Once the attack stopped, they slowly got back up and resumed watching the battle.

Adair growled. "She needs to watch where she plans her attacks…she nearly fried us!"

Lucif could only sigh and agree with his cousin.

Back to the battle, Starmie had finished its attack and both pokemon stared at each other's eyes. Well…eye to gem in this case.

"Ice beam!" Misty yelled.

"Thunder wave!" Luna said at the same time.

Both pokemon charged their attacks and then unleashed them. Both electric blue bolts and sky-colored beam shot forward and made contact with both pokemon. Starmie screamed in pain as the electricity once again surged through its body. Rowena was pushed back onto the top right platform on Misty's side of the field. The ghost pokemon lay flat and did nothing as her body soon became covered in ice from the frosty beam. The only part that remained unfrozen was the pokemon's head.

"Mag! … Mag!" Rowena cried as she shook her head from side to side, trying to free herself from her icy prison.

"Rowena!" Luna gasped.

"Vaporeon!" Aquos called to his friend, telling her to break free.

"Starmie, finish this now with Thunderbolt!" Misty ordered for the final attack.

The alien-like star broke out of its paralyzed status. It rocketed over the water and then floated above the platform that the immobilized Rowena was on. When it did, Starmie began to charge its attack.

"Shadow ball!" the girl on the other side screamed.

"Mis….magius!" the pokemon yelled as it created a basketball sized shadow ball and hurled it at the opponent in front of her.

At the same time, Starmie unleashed its thunderbolt and hit Rowena on the mark, while the shadow ball did the same. Both pokemon screamed and the attacks created a huge cloud of smoke. Both trainers held their breaths as they awaited the result of the battle. When the smoke cleared within the next minute…they were shocked to discover the sight of two fainted pokemon on that platform. Rowena's eyes were swirls while Starmie's gem ceased to glow its usual red.

Both trainers gasped at the sight.

Tracey lifted both red and green flags up and announced the result. "Rowena and Starmie are unable to battle. This round…is a draw!"

Nearby, Adair was doing her best to comprehend what she had just seen. Lucif was shocked as well, but not as much as his cousin. Her mouth fell open with the smoke cleared.

"Whoa…that was tense…" Adair said.

The boy with the vest narrowed his eyes at the field. He watched as both trainers returned the pokemon to their pokeballs and congratulated them on the battle.

"Now both of them are down to just one pokemon left…"

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Meanwhile…

Shadow was not having a great day. Getting owned by a Sandslash twice would have to be more humiliating than getting defeated by Sonic. If he had his full powers, then this should be no problem. But wishing…did not really help in this case.

The ultimate life form pulled down the branch in front of him. His face clearly showed the marks from his previous encounter. Red scratch marks and a few scrapes dotted parts of his face, obviously from the combination of spines and a rollout attack. Even though his face was sore, he ignored the pain and focused on the target in front of him.

He had tracked the ground type to a secluded glade a couple miles from where it was last time. This area was just like the glen the Sandslash was in before, except instead of just one cherri berry bush, it was five. The Mobian deduced that this pokemon must use up a lot of energy per day and would need to eat large amounts of food.

Below him, Shadow could hear the quiet footfalls of his partner, Pikachu. They had been hiding in the underbrush and behind trees for the last few minutes now. The darkness within the vegetation provided the pokemon with the perfect cover, since his disguise could easily give him away in the light.

"Third time's the charm…" he whispered as he watched the ground type eat another red berry from the bush.

"Skull bash…"

At that command, Pikachu got down to all fours and darted through the brush. Once out, he rocketed forward. Like a rocket, he then spiraled towards the unsuspecting Sandslash and hit him point black. Thankfully, the pokemon hit the left side, as he was facing the north. Things would have gotten bad if Pikachu had hit his quills.

"Slash!" the creature screamed as it was pushed into a nearby tree. The pokemon grunted at the impact and then dropped to the ground. He then quickly got back up and faced his stalkers.

"We have you now…" Shadow walked up to his partner and smirked.

"Pika," the pokemon next to him did so as well.

Unfortunately for the duo, this Sandslash has already gotten annoyed. The hedgehog crossed its arms and spun around, counterclockwise. With each second that passed, the spinning got faster. At the same time, the earth around it started to spiral upwards, until a large dust tornado formed. The trees and the brush started to lean in towards the vortex and debris started to get sucked in, however it was only in that area. The wind howled as the Sandstorm attack grew stronger.

Shadow had to run to a nearby tree for support. The plant was deeply rooted into the ground so that provided support. However, he was starting to get pulled in as well. His legs were up and all Shadow could do was scream and hang on to the trunk for dear life. Pikachu had managed to crawl towards that same tree and hang on to it.

"Man! …You have got to be joking!" the boy yelled in the sandstorm.

He and Pikachu lost their grip on the trunk and were sucked into the vortex. Both screamed as they were viciously thrown around like ragdolls. After a minute or so, the attack died down and Sandslash ceased his spinning. When he did, the dust disappeared and the debris ceased to be sucked in. Everything fell from the sky, even the now dizzy Shadow and Pikachu. Both of them landed on the ground with a thud and had swirls in their eyes.

"Slash!" the pokemon cried and escaped into the ground using dig, leaving nothing but a dusty mess and a vacant hole.

Nearby, both trainer and pokemon lay on the ground. Both of them had dust all over and even more scrapes on their bodies. They even have some bits of twigs in their hair/fur.

"Ugh…that son of a…" Shadow cursed but was then interrupted by the urge to puke. He quickly rolled over and placed a hand on his mouth.

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"Alright, Gyarados I choose you!" Misty shouted as she threw her pokeball towards the pool.

The pokeball sailed through the air and when it was just above the water on her side, it opened up. The white light streamed out and formed into a large serpentine-like shape that was half submerged in the water. When the light died down, the pokemon was revealed to be a large, vicious, blue and white dragon with two blue barbels on each side and a blue three-sided crest on its head. It also had four, huge, white fins on its back and it had a yellow underbelly. However, the most notable feature would have to be the mouth it had; its mouth was large and gaping and had four canine teeth.

Luna took a step back at the sight. She had forgotten that Misty had recently obtained this Gyarados through some…unique circumstances. It had been a while, but she could vaguely remember the gym leader battling a group of thugs in one episode in order to save her own gym. Now the girl is battling that same pokemon in person.

"Crap...now what?" the dimensional traveler mumbled under her breath.

"_I could always go with Thorn,"_ she thought. Luna stared into the creature's eyes and was quickly intimidated by it. The girl did her best to hide her reaction. _"Gyarados is partially a water-type, but that flying-type part makes that beast somewhat resistant against grass types. He might even have some sort of flying type move like bounce. That and Gyarados are known to learn a variety of moves. Bringing out Thorn would be too risky…"_

"_But maybe…"_ Luna was about to bring out Thorn's pokeball in her pocket when she was suddenly interrupted by Aquos.

The girl looked down to her right and saw the Vaporeon jump up and down. She could clearly see something in his eyes. Luna immediately knew that face…and she knew that was something she could not say no to. Those eyes radiated eagerness and determination.

The pokemon stopped jumping and stared into the eyes of his trainer. Both stared at each other for another few seconds before the girl looked forward again. She extended her arm out, fingers stretched out, and called out her pokemon.

"My last pokemon shall be…Aquos!"

Right when she called out his name, the eeveelution run up to the diving board and jumped. He gracefully somersaulted in the air as he descended and finally landed nimbly on the top right platform. Aquos brought his head up and stared courageously into the eyes of his opponent.

"Vaporeon!" he let out a battle cry.

"Huh?" Misty squinted her eyes at the pokemon. "Luna, you're just full of surprises aren't you?"

"Eh," the girl shrugged her shoulders and smiled. "I like to surprise my opponents."

Adair could not help but let out a worried groan. "Here we go again…she'd better have a plan for this one. Water types aren't very good against each other…"

For the first time since they arrived at the gym, Lucif did not say anything. He was more interested as to how Luna would do in this battle. He narrowed his eyes at the two combatants.

"Well…" the gym leader crossed her arms and stared at the aquarian mammal. "Considering the fact that there are now two water types on the field, I'm still going to win."

"Don't count your Torchics before they hatch," was all the girl said.

Nearby, Tracey assessed the situation before bringing up the flags again. Like Lucif and Adair, he too was eager to see the outcome of this battle. After the girls were done talking, he resumed his job as the referee.

"The second round of this battle is about to start. Because both pokemon in the first round are unable to battle, this round will serve as the tiebreaker. The pokemon that successfully defeats the other in this round wins and the trainer would be declared the winner!"

The boy with the headband looked at both girls. "Trainers, are you ready?"

Both girls nodded while not breaking eye contact with each other.

"Battle begin!" Tracey announced as he lifted both flags up.

"Right then, Aquos quick attack!" Luna went first.

The semiaquatic creature crouched and then sprang forward. As a water type, and thanks to quick attack, he was able to run across the surface of the water. A stream of white light trailed behind him as if he were a little white comet. Within a couple of seconds, he was already within a few feet of the towering Gyarados. Aquos jumped up and was about to hit the snake square in the chest when he was suddenly swatted back to his own platform. The impact stung his face and he winced. He had not seen his opponent bring his tail up and hit him with his tail fin.

Gyarados lowered his tail back into the water and let out a hiss. Nearby, the Vaporeon shook his head from side to side before opening his eyes and staring at him again.

"Poreon!" he growled.

"_This thing's fast…"_ Luna thought. _"Time to change tactics."_

"Aquos, Aurora beam!"

Aquos opened his mouth and a multicolored orb formed. The orb grew in size until it was the size of a baseball. Once large enough, the pokemon let out a cry and a spiraled rainbow beam shot forward. The beams intertwined into a helix and made contact with the base of the serpent. Gyarados roared in annoyance and shook from side to side. He shut his eyes tight, trying to endure the pain from the ice type attack.

"Gyarados, Flamethrower!" Misty commanded.

The serpent's eyes shot open and a stream of flames shot out of its gaping mouth. The flames made contact with the rainbow beam, which caused a cloud of steam to form. Both attacks disappeared, but the cloud grew until it covered nearly the entire field.

"Aquos, quick attack then Aurora beam again!" Luna told her friend, using this opportunity to attack the distracted Gyarados.

With that said, Aquos once again shot across the water. He ran through the cloud until the silhouette of the Chinese dragon came into view. Once he got close enough, he jumped up, and unleashed another Aurora Beam.

"Vapor!" he cried, letting the attack loose on the snake's face.

Gyarados let out a shriek. The steam immediately cleared and both pokemon were visible again. Everyone could now see the tiny water type in the air and the giant snake thrashing from side to side from the attack.

The orange haired woman growled. "Gyarados, Bite attack!"

The serpent's eyes once again shot open and, with a quick movement of its head, grabbed onto the surprised Vaporeon from the side. The dual water and flying type bit down hard with his four teeth, pinching the skin of Aquos and immobilizing him.

"Vapor!" Aquos shrieked in agony.

"Aquos!" Luna screamed.

"Ow!" Adair shut one eye and slightly turned away. She winced at the sight. "That's gotta hurt…"

Misty smirked and waved her hand out front. "Now Flamethrower!"

The mouth of Gyarados glowed orange for a moment before the insides of his mouth turned into flames. The fire burned Aquos and the pokemon shrieked even louder. Then, the flames shot out, which also caused Aquos to be sent flying to the top platform on the left. The water type kept screaming as the fires beat down on his body.

The attack went on for another minute before the stream of flames died out. When they did, an Aquos covered in dark burn marks across his body was shown. He breathed stagnantly and strained on his legs, trying to stay up.

"Oh god…" Luna whispered with fear and worry in her voice.

"Now Hyper Beam!" Misty called out next.

Once again, Gyarados let out a roar and the inside of his mouth glowed golden. Within ten seconds, a strong golden beam shot out of its mouth and headed straight for the wounded Vaporeon.

"Aquos, dodge it with Acid Armor!" the girl reacted quickly.

"Por!" he cried.

The Vaporeon's body immediately liquefied into shining water. The form melted away and fell into the pool. The beam impacted the white platform and destroyed it with ease. A could of smoke filled the air before disappearing, leaving crumbled pieces of the platform floating on the surface. Across the destroyed platform, Aquos, now back into his full self, tiredly climbed onto the whole tile. He let out a few breaths before facing the towering Gyarados again.

Just when things started to look okay again, Aquos' body became engulfed in flames. The pokemon screamed in agony as the flames burned his body. Aquos could do nothing except rear his head back and scream in agony.

Luna let out a gasp. "Aquos no!"

The burn had lasted for at least thirty seconds before the flames died away, leaving a now more fatigued Vaporeon. Aquos shut one eye and struggled to stay on his feet. He still had the strength to carry on, but it would not last long.

Back on the bleachers, Adair could not help but scream. "Aw man! This looks bad…"

Lucif frowned at the situation. "Yeah. Fire attacks aren't that great against water types, but it looks like Misty was only trying to inflict the burn status on Aquos."

After what her cousin had just said, the eighteen year old stood up and started yelling at her two friends. She balled her fists together and did the "punching the air" motion with her right hand.

"Come on Luna! Aquos! Don't let some silly burn pull you down! You can still win this!"

Luna, who had been show signs of nervousness, broke out of her trance and glanced at Adair. She stared at her for a second before giving her a nod. Her face immediately changed back into her game face. Determination was clearly shown, but also a hint of anger.

"You may have burned my pokemon, but this battle isn't over yet!"

Misty chuckled. "Sorry, but it soon will be. Gyarados, Bite attack!"

The serpent hissed and surged towards the weakened Aquos. Like a plesiosaur, or the Loch Ness Monster as Luna thought about, it sailed through the water and charged.

"Aquos, push it back with Hydro pump!"

Aquos lifted his head up and opened his mouth. When he did, a strong jet of water shot out, hitting the opponent on the face. Gyarados may be a water type, and the attack did cause some mild damage, but the strength of the hydro pump was enough to push him back to where he was before.

"Now quick attack!"

He then shot forward like before and ran over the water. Once he was close enough, the Vaporeon jumped up and was about to hit him in the chest. Unfortunately, like before, the Gyarados swat him away like a fly.

"Vapor!" Aquos screamed again and was knocked back into the water. The pokemon broke the surface and fell in. However, he only stayed out of sight for a minute before coming back up and swimming back onto the same platform.

The gym leader smirked tauntingly. "Care to try again?"

Luna growled. "Dive into the water!"

The pokemon jumped in and disappeared from sight. Gyarados scanned the surface of the water for any shadowy shape, but found nothing. Because of the pokemon Aquos was, he was able to blend right in to the water. Even without the use of Acid armor, he was still perfectly camouflaged.

The wait did not last long, as he decided to show himself in front of his opponent. Aquos had jumped up in front of the dragon like a dolphin would in a show.

"Aurora Beam!"

Once again, the rainbow beams shot out of his mouth and hit Gyarados on his face. He screamed again at the pain and struggled to stay focused on the smaller creature.

This did not faze Misty however. She kept her game face and gave out another attack. "Send him back with Hyper Beam!"

Like before, the serpent regained his composure and charged yet another Hyper Beam. His mouth glowed yellow before that same golden beam was unleashed. Aquos had no way to dodge it as he was in the air. The attack hit him straight on and sent him flying back to his side of the field, into the water. Steam had erupted from that spot for a few seconds before dissipating.

"Vapor!" he screamed.

"Aquos!" Luna called out to him.

A couple seconds later, a tired Aquos emerged from the right side of the pool. Slowly, he hauled himself back onto the platform. Once he got back into position, the situation got even worse. The flames from before surrounded his body again. The pokemon reared his head back and screamed.

"VAPOR!"

Luna could do nothing but watch for the next minute. She watched helplessly as her partner suffered from the severe burns and the flames. Just seeing Aquos in this state made her want to forfeit the match. But doing so would mean losing this chance of getting her second badge. The girl would have to start this battle over if she did that. Luna could not give up now…but at the same time…she did not want Aquos to suffer anymore.

"Oh man…I can't watch…" Adair said at the bleachers as she covered her eyes with her hands.

Once the flames died down, the Vaporeon collapsed on the spot. His eyes were shut tight and his breathing was labored. His body heaved up and down, but other than that, he barely moved.

"Aquos!" Luna called to him. "Come on! Get up! Don't give up now!"

Aquos heeded her command. He opened his eyes and struggled. It took him some effort, but he finally got back on his feet. The pokemon, still covered in a series of burns, stared at his opponent, intent on continuing the battle.

"Sorry Luna. You're a good trainer," Misty told her with a smile. That smile then turned into a frown. "But this battle has gone on long enough! Gyarados, finish it off with an Aqua Tail!"

Gyarados let out a roar and lifted its tail up. When he did, the tail became covered by two spinning water streams, almost like a double helix. The serpent reared its tail back before swiping at his tiny opponent.

Aquos looked back at his trainer, waiting for a command from her. For the first time in this battle, Luna did nothing. She stood there with a straight face and stared at the battlefield. He was incredulous at the fact that this human would allow him to take a hit like that. What kind of friend was she!? For a minute, Aquos felt betrayed. However, that feeling melted away when the water from the attack made contact with him. The Vaporeon grunted at the pressure and struggled to keep his footing. But…for some reason, he did not need to. As the attack went on, he started to feel…stronger for some reason. The water going through his body was somehow rejuvenating him!

It was at that realization that his body started to glow. Everyone at the bleachers and Misty stared in awe at the sight. Luna, who had kept a straight face at the situation, grinned.

"What the?" Misty was taken aback. "What's happening?"

Luna chuckled. "Thanks for that attack. It gave us the edge we needed."

"Huh?" she went again. The young woman looked back at the Vaporeon and gasped. She saw what she meant. The burn marks on Aquos were quickly disappearing!

"What's happening?" Adair slowly uncovered her face to see the situation.

Lucif let out a laugh. "Luna took a gamble, but she had won the bet."

"What bet?" she asked and looked at her cousin.

"Adair, don't tell me you've forgotten about a Vaporeon's main special ability."

The girl put her hand on her chin and thought for a moment. After a second she perked up and looked at him with wide eyes.

"Wait…you don't mean…?"

The ex-agent nodded. "Yup. Water Absorb. Every time a pokemon with that ability gets hit with a water type move, it only heals their wounds or does not do anything at all, depending on whether they received any damage previously or not."

"Whoa…" she uttered then looked back at Aquos. The glowing around him receded into nothingness. The Vaporeon that was once wounded and covered in burns was now healed and fit for battle again. "I've never seen it in battle before."

"I can't believe I've forgotten about that!" Misty said, dumbfounded. "And I call myself a water master."

Luna lifted her hands up and shrugged her shoulders again. "Eh…you learn things every day."

She then formed them into fists and she punched the air with her right hand. "Now where were we? Oh yeah…quick attack!"

"Vapor!" the Vaporeon cried and darted across the water again.

"Gyarados, stop him with Hyper Beam!" Misty yelled.

The serpent let out a hiss and reared his head back. The attack was quickly charged up and he unleashed it at the running pokemon. Unfortunately, Aquos quickly maneuvered around the move and kept coming straight at Gyarados.

"Aurora Beam!" Luna said next.

Aquos jumped up and once again unleashed that attack on his face again. The pokemon shrieked in annoyance like before. Once done, the aquarian mammal landed back in the water and dived underneath. The Chinese dragon regained focus and searched around for his opponent, only to find him nowhere in sight.

"Aquos, use those same tactics. Aurora Beam!"

At her command, the pokemon leapt up from behind the dragon and performed the same attack. This time, it was across the entire back. Gyarados screamed again and attempted to swipe him from behind. His timing was not that great, as the usage of Hyper Beam had caused him to be immobile for the next few moments. For the next three minutes, Aquos did the same thing. He leapt from the water, performed his Aurora Beam, gradually damaged the serpent, and then returned into the water.

"Okay, this is getting annoying. Gyarados, Hyper Beam when he comes out of the water!"

The pokemon let out a low roar and waited. The water's surface became still and no movement, not even a splash, was detected. Everyone's hearts was in their throats at this moment. Even Luna's nervousness had returned. She knew that the battle was almost done, but she needed to end it right.

A minute later, Aquos leapt from in front of Gyarados. When he did, the pokemon charged his ultimate attack. The giant creature breathed in and unleashed his Hyper Beam.

"Dodge and use quick attack!" Luna quickly reacted.

When the attack was merely a few feet away from the eeveelution, he quickly spun and dived to the right. The beam narrowly missed its mark, almost hitting the mermaid tail. The attack hit the back of the pool and created more steam. At the same time, Aquos had landed on the surface of the water and darted forward with a quick attack.

"Gyarados, get out of the way!" Misty gasped and quickly commanded.

Unfortunately, after the use of Hyper Beam, the serpent could not move. As much as he struggled in his position, he simply did not have the strength to. Aquos quickly darted towards the Gyarados, jumped and hit him square in the chest. This attack caused the pokemon to lose balance and to be pushed back.

"Now Aquos!" Luna said with a smile and with confidence. "End this with Hydro Pump!"

Aquos reared his head back. "Vaaaaaaaa…Por!"

A jet of cold water shot forth and pushed Gyarados back even further. The serpent was knocked from the water and collided with his trainer's pole. The impact caused Misty to scream and to fall on her butt. When the attack died, the result was clear. The pokemon groaned and his eyes were swirls.

Tracey lifted his green flag up and pointed it to Luna. "Gyarados is unable to battle. The winner of the match is Luna!"

Luna smiled and jumped up and down. Her hands had been formed into fists. "YES! We did it! We did it Aquos!"

The pokemon slowly turned around and watched his trainer jump from the board. Aquos swum over to where she would land. She impacted the water with a cannonball and disappeared. However, she popped back up only to surprise her pokemon and hug him tightly. Both trainer and pokemon smiled and laughed together.

"Aquos we actually did it!" she cheered again.

"Poreon!" he did so as well and nuzzled his trainer on her neck, causing her to laugh again.

Their friends even cheered too. Adair could not stop cheering and jumping up and down. Lucif, who had stood up, clapped his hands and cheered alongside his cousin.

"Well done you two!" he shouted, showing that he was clearly impressed.

"You almost had us there!" Adair came next. "But that was a great battle!"

Luna rolled her eyes amusingly and both of them swam back to their edge of the pool. The first to climb up was the girl, and then was followed by her pokemon. Both of them were soaking wet. Aquos merely flicked off the water from his tail while Luna went to work with squeezing the water from her skirt. While she did that, Misty, who had been comforting her Gyarados and just returned him to his pokeball, walked towards her with a pink tray in hand.

"Luna," she called out to her.

The young teen stopped what she was doing and looked to her left. She let go of her skirt and stood in front of the gym leader. Aquos followed and then sat next to her.

"You've battled well today. I gotta say, you really surprised me with the pokemon you used today. You kind of caught me off guard."

"Thanks," the girl nodded. "That was kind of the plan."

"Here," the gym leader brought the box in front of her. "I want you to have this."

Luna's eyes widened. She knew what that object was. The tiny pin was in the shape of a small blue teardrop. But that was no ordinary teardrop. This was what Luna had worked hard for today.

"Congratulations. In recognition of your victory here at the Cerulean City Gym, please take this Cascade Badge."

"Oh my god…" Luna said quietly and carefully took the badge from the box. "Misty…thank you."

Right when she took the badge, Adair ran up and caught her in an embrace. This hug was so tight that the air was being squeezed right out of her. Luna showed signs of discomfort, but could not tell her as she could not say anything.

"Luna that was awesome!" the girl congratulated. She then released the young trainer, who gasped for air for the next few seconds. "You and your pokemon were great!" At that phrase, Aquos could not help but blush.

"Thanks…" she said, regaining her composure. "But it's not over yet. There's your battle next."

"Oh yeah, right. I'd better get ready then."

"And I can't wait for that…" Misty agreed. However, that moment was ruined with the sound of a rumble from her stomach. A sweat drop fell from her cheek and she laughed sheepishly. "But I think that would have to wait…I'm kind of hungry now."

Tracey and Lucif walked up to them. That kind of phrase was their calling card. Luna and Adair quietly giggled and watched what would happen next.

"It is around that time. I can whip up some quick sandwiches. My treat!" Tracey offered.

The brown-haired boy turned to him and pointed a finger up. "Mind if I help? I can make some juice along with that."

"Sure thing," he replied.

"Aw yeah!" Adair cheered. "Time for some grub!"

With that said, all the trainers and Aquos evacuated the gym to grab some lunch. This stadium had seen an amazing battle today. Luna may have won this battle, but the day was not over yet. Now, it was Adair's turn to step up to the plate.

_TADA! I did not abandon this story. This was only part 1 of the gym battle. Now part 2 is about to commence. Will Adair ever get her next gym badge? Will Shadow and Pikachu succeed in their mission of catching a Sandslash? Find out next time on Pokemon Rising Champions! Stay tuned!_


	18. Battle - Cerulean City Gym Part 2

_Hello everyone, Darksage95 here. I am proud to present the second part of the gym battle against Misty! Because it has been a long time, I have decided to take a break on writing more chapters for my other stories and focus on this adventure here. Note, if I do not write another chapter in a while, on this story or any others, there is a big chance that I am busy with something like school or my jobs. __**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon or Sonic the Hedgehog (well in this case, Shadow). They belong to their respective owners.**__ Now let's get this battle underway!_

About an hour and a half later…

The group had their lunch on the bleachers of the gym. The lunch was indeed a nice break from the intense battle from earlier. Everyone had gobbled down the food within a matter of minutes and then spent the rest of the time chatting. Both Tracey and Lucif even received praising comments about their cooking from all of the girls. Even the pokemon were pretty impressed.

Right after their break was over, they cleaned up their mess and readied themselves for the next match. Luna, who was stuffed from eating three whole sandwiches as a "victory meal", as she had called it earlier, took Adair's place next to Lucif on the bleachers. Her pokemon did the same, as he sat next to her. Aquos had eaten a few rawst berries during their meal, which cured him of his multiple burns from that flamethrower from earlier. However, he still bore the multiple bruises.

Adair panted as she overcame the last rung on the ladder. It was a tall tower, however the adrenaline from getting ready to battle was enough to get her going. She stood straight up and overlooked the battlefield, ready for her match with the Kanto water master.

"The gym battle between Misty, the gym leader of Cerulean City and Adair of Ecruteak City is about to begin," Tracey announced, once again taking the role as the referee.

"The rules are the same. Each trainer is allowed up to two pokemon and only the challenger may substitute their pokemon. The trainer that defeats all of their opponent's pokemon is the winner of the match!"

"Trainers!" he called out to each of them. "Choose your first pokemon!"

Right when he said that, Misty took out one pokeball from her pocket. She then pressed the button to enlarge it. As an act of good luck, she gave it a kiss. From watching her battle from earlier, she deduced that she does that to her favorite pokemon. As a result, the trainer assumed that this pokemon would be pretty tough to defeat.

"Alright Corsola, I choose you!" she hollered as she threw her pokeball in a baseball athlete fashion.

The capsule flew down to the field until it was over the circular platform on the middle. During their lunch break, the stadium was prepped up by a couple of the arena caretakers. They worked diligently to prepare the field for the next battle by making sure the outer rims of the pool were dry and even rearranging the circular platforms. Some of them had the burn marks from earlier due to Gyarados' flamethrower, so they took those out for cleaning and replaced them with newer versions.

The pokeball opened, releasing that familiar stream of white light. The light touched the tile and took the shape of a round creature with long spikes. In a matter of seconds, the light faded, revealing a small, pink, lump of coral with a face.

"Corsola!" the creature cried as she jumped up and down in glee.

Adair blew a strand of her hair away from her face. Since she was a ground type master, a rock type like Corsola would be a cinch to defeat. However, this was an aquatic environment and that pokemon was partially a water type. Thankfully, she had a few pokemon to solve that issue. The teen took out a pokeball from her pouch and enlarged it.

"Well if you want to play it that way…" Adair half chuckled. "Go for it, Quagsire!"

She threw the object and it soared over the battlefield. It then opened, unleashing that same white light. The stream landed on another platform in the middle. When it did, it took form into a large, tadpole-like creature. When the light faded, a blue, oblong-shaped tadpole stood tall and patient.

"Quag…" the pokemon softly squeaked.

Misty was taken aback by the dual water and ground type. She was a huge fan of a lot of water pokemon, but this one was one of her least favorites. And for a good reason. A shiver went down her spine as she watched the pokemon with the creepy smile. It was as if he was staring right into her soul.

"Ew…" she shuddered. "Man, those things still creep me out."

Nearby, both trainers did the same thing as well. Luna remembered the time Adair introduced her pokemon to her back in Viridian Forest. That one pokemon still freaked her out to this day. As for Lucif, he did his best to hide his intimidation, however, he could not help but shiver a little. Only Aquos remained calm; in fact, he snickered a little at the sight of both humans' reactions.

"God not him…," Luna gulped and hugged herself to contain her shivers. "Did it just get colder in here or what?"

"Now!" the referee announced nearby. He crossed both of his arms and then stretched them out, waving both flags. "Battle begin!"

"Okay! Quagsire, use sludge bomb!" Adair quickly started.

Right when she said that, the oversized tadpole opened his maw and let out a series of purple blobs. The blobs, which were the size of baseballs, rocketed towards the pink coral creature. Corsola stood her ground and crouched, waiting for her trainer's command.

"Dive into the water Corsola!" Misty commanded.

"Corsola!" the rock with staghorns cried. She jumped into the air and broke the water surface. The barrage of poisonous sludge missed its mark, barely scratching the white tile.

With a swipe of her hand, the gym leader let out another order. "Now use spike cannon!"

The creature shot out of the water and into the air. With a grunt, the creature did a partial somersault to aim the horns at the opponent. The horns glowed with and small, white pellets were fired. The attack was just as fast as the sludge bomb and impacted the dual water and ground type. Quagsire shut his eyes and gritted his teeth, enduring the pain of a bombardment of tiny rock needles to his head and body. After a minute, the attack stopped and the pink pokemon landed back onto the front tile. Her opponent opened his eyes and scratched his head.

"Okay…" Adair breathed out. She had just finished processing the fact that this pokemon is really fast. "Sludge bomb again!"

"Quag!" he cried and opened his maw again. The purple blobs shot out and flew towards the target.

Misty let out a laugh. "Well if you're going to do that, then we're going to use it against you. Use mirror coat!"

Once she said that, a glossy sheen suddenly appeared around Corsola's body. The pokemon stood her ground as the volley of blobs made contact with her. Instead of directly hitting her, the attacks bounced back. What was once an attack meant for the gym leader's pokemon was now redirected back to its owner.

The green-haired girl let out a growl. "Push it back with muddy water!"

Quagsire nodded and crouched down. When he did, he started doing a most peculiar action; the large tadpole flipped onto his back and started to spin. As he spun, murky jets of water erupted from his body and spiraled around, creating a twirling sprinkler effect. The rebounded sludge bomb dissappated as they hit the jets. Not only that, but the jets even hit the unsuspecting Corsola from that distance.

"Corsola, corsola!" the pokemon screamed. One of the jets hit her and sent her flying into another muddy tendril. It was not long before the living coral was trapped in a muddy vortex.

"Oh no!" the gym leader gasped. She watched in disbelief as her pokemon was being tossed around by the streams like a ragdoll.

Nearby, the three other companions had the same reactions as well. All of them were amazed at how Quagsire had executed his attack. The trainers winced and made painful sound comments as the pokemon impacted each tendril.

"That's got to hurt…" Lucif commented. He winced as the Corsola was smacked by a tendril from her back.

"I didn't know muddy water could be used like that," Luna went next. Her eyes widened when she said that. In reality, she had seen muddy water in that way before, only it was in the anime.

"_Oh right," _she thought to herself. _"This is a countershield. Ash came up with this technique while he was travelling around the Sinnoh region. Then Paul copied it and had his Gastrodon learn it."_

The attack ceased when Corsola was smacked back onto the top right tile on her side of the field. The pokemon landed with a grunt and lay flat on her stomach. Quagsire stopped spinning and stood right back up in a quick movement.

"Quag…" he cooed, flapping his flippers twice on his side.

"_Adair must have watched Ash and Paul's battle and copied it for herself," _Luna realized. _"Either that or she must have come up with the technique on her own."_

With the pokemon down, Adair saw a window of opportunity to prepare for the next bought. "Quickly! Use amnesia!"

Immediately, the blue amphibian hummed and relaxed his muscles. In just under a few seconds, a pink aura surrounded his body. He then let out a sigh and flapped his arms again.

Luna scratched her head. "Hey Lucif. Doesn't amnesia raise the user's special defense?"

The ex-agent nodded, yet did not look at the teen next to him. "Yeah it does. Any ranged attack aimed at Quagsire will be slightly reduced. That move makes the user forget anything that has occurred in the past. At the same time, the user's defense is raised by a large amount."

"Well hopefully he doesn't forget how to use a move," the girl muttered. She remembered that one episode from the first season of the show. A Slowbro used it once and temporarily forgot how to use a move.

Back in the battlefield, Corsola had just recovered from the muddy water beating. She got back on her four stubby legs and looked at Quagsire in the eye. The tadpole stood there, watching her with a blank face.

"Raising stats isn't stopping us!" the gym leader declared in confidence. "Bubblebeam!"

The pink coral creature let out a cry and opened her little mouth. A fast stream of glistening bubbles flew towards the adversary.

Adair wanted to laugh. This was a water type move. This was not going to hurt her Quagsire at all. Confidence was starting to take its hold on her. Perhaps the gym leader was trying to put in a little damage? Either way, she responded to the move.

"Push it back with sludge bomb!"

Like before, the amphibious creature unleashed another barrage of poisonous sludge. The attack made contact with the series of bubbles and caused them to explode on contact, creating a glitter effect. The purple shots pushed the stream back and made its way towards Corsola.

"Cor!?" she cried in surprise.

"Jump and use spike cannon!" Misty said with quick thinking.

In response, the creature jumped up and the stream of poison collided with the white tile. The attack was so strong that a portion of the rim was broken into small pieces. Like little ice cubes, the debris floated on the water. The pokemon, now ready to unleash her next attack, leaned forward and took aim. The horns glowed white and small glowing needles were released.

"Dodge it by diving into the water!" the Johto denizen ordered.

The pokemon nodded and dove from the tile. The small needles broke as they hit the platform. Now in his home environment, Quagsire swam freely in the water, and with greater speed. He quickly swam through the environment, using his arms and large tail to propel himself. Corsola watched as her rival made his way directly under where she was.

"Huh!?" Misty exclaimed as she watched the pokemon do that. "What's that Quagsire up to?"

Adair chuckled evilly. "You'll soon find out! Muddy Water!"

As soon as she said that, a torrent of murky water shot up from below Corsola. She let out a yelp as the surge impacted her body and pushed her against the ceiling. The ceiling was filled with iron beams, so that doubled the damage. The coral creature screamed as she was constantly pounded by the force of the water. The entire attack lasted for a minute and ended when the water died down. Corsola plummeted down to the pool while Quagsire leisurely swam back to the tile he was on before. He hopped from the water and landed nimbly on the platform while his opponent crashed through the aquatic mirror, creating a huge splash.

"Corsola!" the young orange-haired woman shrieked. She watched her pokemon, now covered in bruises, slowly swim back to the front tile and weakly climb back up.

The challenger still smiled at this. "Quagsire, amnesia!"

Like before, the pokemon cooed and became covered in a pink aura. His special defense rose again, now becoming strong enough to withstand any attacks. As he concentrated, Corsola strained under the wounds all over her body. She heaved out gasps and winced. Her vision was blurry and she could not see straight. It was as if something was in her eyes. The pokemon shook her head and tried to concentrate. Misty let out a sharp breath and stared at her opponent in the eye.

"_Corsola's taken too much damage. At this rate, she won't make it into the next round…"_ she thought and then gave out her next attack.

"Corsola, spike cannon!"

"Corsola!" the pokemon cried and took aim at the blue silhouette in front of her. Her body glowed white and unleashed a series of sharp rock missiles.

"Cor cor cor cor cor!" she went on as the attack progressed.

As the missiles approached, the Quagsire merely sidestepped each attack and even jumped at times. The spike cannon was not even hitting him at all. It was as if Corsola was firing at air.

Nearby, Luna could not help but scratch her head at the situation. "Huh? What's going on? Why is Corsola's attack not hitting?"

Lucif looked at her and pointed a finger up at the ceiling. He cleared his throat and sat up straight like a professor about to give out a lecture. "That's the effect of muddy water. Muddy water is so dirty that it has a chance of lowering the opponent's accuracy. Some of that water must have gotten into Corsola's eyes."

The girl let out a sound of realization. "Oh right! How could I forget about that?"

She laughed nervously and then looked back at the field. A small sweat drop fell from her cheek at the fact that she could forget something as simple as that.

"_Right…I guess it's because I didn't really see that move used a lot in the games."_

"Quagsire, sludge bomb!" Adair suddenly ordered.

The pokemon ceased dodging and leaped high in the air. He let out a soft coo before unleashing the barrage of purple sludge. Corsola, who was still using her spike cannon attack, did not see it coming. The blobs impacted her hard and caused her to stop her attack.

"Corsola corsola!" she screamed in pain as each pellet slammed into her body.

"Ah! Corsola!" Misty shrieked.

The attack stopped when Quagsire landed nimbly back onto the platform on the right. The living coral, who was now on her stomach, struggled to get back up. She strained under the weight of all the sludge that now partially covered her body. The slime hung over her horns like Spanish moss. Each part of the goop dropped onto the tile with a splat. Corsola's appearance was not the worst part; there was also another reason why she could not get up.

Her eyes looked weary. Her breathing was shallow. The horns were now drooping rather than in their straight positions. And her body was in pain. Not only that, but a purple blush started to appear on her face. Just then, she became covered in an intense purple sheen. Bubbles became transparent through her body.

"Corsola!" she screamed in agony as the toxin stung her internally.

"Yes!" Adair smiled and pulled her fist down in front of her face.

"Corsola's been poisoned!" Luna yelled out nearby. Like her friend, she smiled as well. Things were really looking into Adair's favor.

"Lucky shot," the gym leader acknowledged. "But that's not stopping us! Corsola, recover!"

"Cor!" the creature nodded.

She let hummed and then became coated in a white light. The light covered her body until she was merely a white shape. In just a matter of seconds, the form changed position. The staghorns on Corsola's head stood back up and looked stronger than ever. That wasn't all, the move even helped the pokemon get back onto her feet. When the light died down, a new and improved Corsola stood there, ready to continue with the battle.

"Corsola!" she let out a battle cry. A smile creased across her face.

Adair frowned. "Well that's new."

Back on the bleachers, both trainers and pokemon were just getting over the shock of seeing that move. Lucif tensed up when that happened. This battle has really gotten serious. He eyed both combatants in silence, eager to see what would happen next.

As for Luna and Aquos, they let out sounds of frustration. Just when they were about to cheer her on, the dual water and rock type pulled a troll move on them. Both of them stirred in their seats and remained quiet, waiting for the outcome of the match.

"_This is definitely the same Corsola from the show," _Luna remembered. In the show, Misty had used this pokemon mostly during the second season, which took place in the Orange Islands. _"The poison's still there, which is a plus. But Adair had better take her out fast!"_

"Use bubblebeam!" Misty commanded.

In response, the pokemon opened her little mouth and shot a stream of sparkling bubbles. They flew through the air towards the blank-faced Quagsire. Unfortunately, due to the earlier effect from muddy water, her vision was still blurred. The attack merely passed inches over his head and impacted Adair's post.

"Oh no!" she yelped, stunned by the fact that the bubblebeam missed.

"Oh yes!" Adair happily confirmed. "Quagsire, dive into the water!"

"Quag," he cried before diving into the pool.

He sped under the surface towards that tile just about fifteen feet from him. The bubbles continued to break the surface and fly below, however, he dodged them with ease as he was in his element. The pokemon dodged left and right, gracefully maneuvering away from the bubbles' reach. Once he got close enough to the platform, he took his opponents by surprise by swimming under the tile.

"Corsola!?"

"What!?" both trainer and pokemon exclaimed in unison.

Adair laughed. "Now grab her by the horns!"

Quagsire, who could clearly hear his trainer's command from underwater, jumped from behind the unsuspecting pokemon onto the platform. He grabbed onto two of the horns on Corsola's head and held fast. The pink creature shrieked at the sudden hold and tried to break free. Sadly, each time she moved, he only held on tighter.

"Corsola! Cor cor corsola!" she shook violently from side to side.

Misty could not help but gasp in shock.

"Now jump into the air and use earthquake!" Adair followed up with that plan.

The oversized tadpole jumped high into the air, still holding on to the helpless coral creature. Once they were high enough, he placed Corsola under him, belly side up. The pokemon tried to break free but was not able to due to the tight grip on her horns. The two plummeted back down to the same tile. When they did, the white platform shook violently. The waves from the attack caused huge waves to form on the pool. The tides crashed onto each side of the pool and caused some water to leave the edges. Not only that, but the entire gym felt the repercussion of the earthquake. Everyone screamed when they lost their balance and fell either on their faces or on their backs. Even Adair, who was lucky enough to grab onto the railing of her viewing platform, hung on for dear life.

The tremors lasted for only about ten seconds. When they stopped, the waves did not crash back and forth and the tiles stood still. Everyone groaned and returned to their original positions. The earthquake was minor, but they still got a bruise or two on their heads or their backs.

"Hey Adair, I know you're trying to win a battle and all, but you ever think about considering our safety!?" Luna complained.

"You almost zapped us!" Adair retorted and stood back up. "Consider this as payback!"

The girl groaned and remained quiet.

As for the pokemon, Quagsire had already jumped into the water and remained close to the nearly broken platform. Corsola, who had received a lot of damage from the earthquake attack, struggled to get back up. She lay on her back and was doing her best to roll over. The timing for her was very inopportune as the poison status kicked in.

"Corsola!" she screamed when her body glowed an intense purple for a second.

"Quick use recover!" Misty thought quickly.

Adair flipped a hair strand from her face and smiled. "Sorry, it's over. Quagsire, finish this off with sludge bomb!"

The amphibian first submerged but then jumped high. He opened his maw and released the poisonous sludge again. Corsola had already become coated in a thin ray of light but was then pounded by the multitude of blobs. The pokemon screamed with each stinging hit. Smoke had started to cover the pokemon because of the sludge bomb attack hitting the recover aura. Quagsire ceased attacking and landed onto his front platform.

Both trainers held their breath as the smoke on the platform began to clear. In just a minute, the cloud revealed the result. Corsola lay still on her back. The familiar swirls appeared on her eyes, signaling her defeat.

Tracey rushed back to the referee platform and cleared his throat. He raised the green flag on his left arm towards Adair's side of the gym. "Corsola is unable to battle. The winner is Quagsire!"

"And that's how it's done," Adair said in a cocky tone. She placed a hand on her hip and blew a hair strand away from her face.

Luckily, Misty did not hear that. She had already lifted Corsola's pokeball and returned her to it. She then turned it around and looked at it reassuringly.

"Thanks Corsola. You did your best."

At the bleachers, Luna and Aquos had finished cheering for their friend. Both of them had jumped for joy when Tracey announced the results. Breathing heavily, they sat back down and relaxed.

"Phew…okay…one round down," she said, leaning against the back rest.

"Adair had already won this match the minute Corsola became poisoned. Adair's standing is looking good at this point," Lucif commented as he watched his cousin.

Luna shrugged her shoulders. "Yeah, but it's not over yet."

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Meanwhile…

Shadow let out a huff. He sauntered down the path leading back to Cerulean City in disappointment. He clenched his hands and only watched the ground, not even looking up to see where he was going. Today really was not his day at all.

The sun was still high in the sky. However, it had already passed its peak. The ball of fire was slowly approaching the horizon, meaning that it was starting to become mid-afternoon. The temperatures climbed a little and the breeze was calm.

The boy let out a 'tch' sound after bypassing a couple of rocks in his way. "This was a complete waste of my time. I don't need other pokemon to help me survive here."

Pikachu had managed to catch up to him on all fours. He breathed out a couple of cries before resorting on his bipedal mode of walking.

"_And I certainly don't need to take any advice from HER!"_ He screamed in his mind, referring to Luna.

For the next few minutes, they walked on in silence. Soon, the forest path gave way to an open field; the same view they and the rest of the group looked on to the day before. On each side of the trail were rolling green hills. A few pokemon ran here and there in the area, but they paid no mind to the duo. Off in the distance was the silhouette of Cerulean City itself.

"That stupid girl," he grumbled. "I'll find a way to get by on my own."

The 'shiny' Pikachu next to him let out a sigh. Ever since he first met this boy, he was always arrogant and selfish. Not to mention he plays the 'loner' attitude pretty well. The pokemon had learned to get used to his antics, even read his expressions even though he mostly keeps a straight face. From the past two weeks he had been with Shadow, he saw that he did have a soft side for his friends, especially that one girl named Luna. That night when she had that nightmare proved it. He's really a nice guy…it's just that he has a hard time showing that to others.

Just then, something sounded off in the forest. Pikachu's ears twitched at that sound. He stopped walking and stayed still, trying to listen for it again. Whatever it was, he could hear it perfectly. As for Shadow, he went on ahead, as he did not hear it at all. A few seconds later, the sound came back.

"Pika?" he quietly squeaked.

The sound was a little louder this time. He looked back to the forest since that was the direction it was coming from. Whatever it was, sounded like it was in distress. Almost as if it was in some sort of danger. Then like before, silence. The only sound that came from the forest was the leaves rustling in the wind.

"Pika pi?"

A few seconds later, it returned. The sound was much, much louder than before. This time, it caused Shadow to stop in his tracks. He perked his head up and listened intently. He looked at where his Pikachu was before, but did not find him. When he turned around, he saw him a few feet away, looking back at the forest.

"What the hell is that?" Shadow wondered, thinking of it as some kind of threat that was stalking them. The boy tensed up, preparing himself for whatever was coming.

The sound came back, and it was crystal clear. It was loud enough that it echoed from within the forest path. Its location sounded like it was about a few hundred feet from where they were standing. The pokemon making that racket sounded very familiar. And Shadow got very annoyed when it came again.

"Sandslash!" the creature screamed in fear.

The minstrel shook his head and turned to walk away. "Sounds like our former target just got himself into trouble. Not our problem."

At that statement, Pikachu's trance for that sound broke. He returned his attention to his trainer and glared at him. How could he ignore that plea? The electric type heard those cries clear as day. Sandslash was in trouble! Sure that thing gave them a hard time for the past few hours, but they're just going to ignore that call for help!? No, he won't stand for it!

The pokemon ran up to his trainers on all fours and stopped in front of him. He then stood back up and blocked his way, preventing him from passing. Shadow stood still and gazed at the little pokemon. Within those dark eyes, he saw hints of anger, irritation, and disappointment.

"Pikachu!" he yelled at him.

"What the heck Pikachu!? Get out of the way!" Shadow hollered at him, then swiping the air with one of his arms.

Pikachu did not move, nor did he answer back. All he did was close his eyes, shake his head no, and then glare back at him.

Shadow clenched his hands into fists. "What's your problem!?"

"Pika! Pikachu!" the mouse pokemon waved his arms once and then pointed back at the forest.

It took the Mobian a few seconds to figure out what was happening. Pikachu was trying to get him to go back and save Sandslash from whatever trouble he was in. Shadow gritted his teeth at this and shook his head no.

"I know what you're trying to get me to do. It's not going to work. That thing has caused us enough trouble for one day. Whatever problem he's in is his own damn fault!"

Pikachu stood his ground and kept shaking his little finger at the woods behind them. "Pika! Pika! Pikachu!"

"My decision is final. We are not helping that annoying pincushion!" he argued.

It was at that moment that Pikachu had had it. He put his arms down and closed his eyes. With a tiny grunt, he crouched down and darted for the forest. Shadow widened his eyes. His own pokemon had disobeyed his orders! He watched in disbelief as his partner ran away from him. It was then that Shadow knew what he was going to do; he was going back to save that pokemon, without his help.

This Pikachu was by far the only thing that would help him adapt to this world. Not only that, but this was the very first thing he called an ally ever since he first arrived. He respected Pikachu, and Pikachu respected him in return. Something inside Shadow erupted. He could not explain it, but something inside him was telling him to go with Pikachu. A mix of emotions started to surface; confusion, shock, a slight hint of annoyance, but most of all, concern.

"_Why should I?" _he questioned himself. _"He's getting himself into trouble. Plus, he disobeyed my orders! Humans are in command, not pokemon!"_

He continued to stare at the Pikachu. In a matter of moments, he had disappeared from view and into the woods.

"_Then again, I wouldn't even be here without him. If it weren't for him, I would have been a mess in this dimension…"_

For a long time, he was a loner. But ever since he met Pikachu, he started to feel less of his former self. Ever since Maria died, he never trusted anyone, particularly humans. But the incident with the ARK and the biolizard made him remember his first friend's promise. Sure she referred to humans, but he had a sense that she meant every single living creature. And Pikachu was his first partner in this dimension.

Shadow growled. He needed the little guy, not only because he needed him to help find a way home, but for some reason, he felt something…more. The boy took off for the woods, half skating and half running through the dirt.

"Once this is over, Pikachu is so dead!" the ultimate lifeform snarled as he made his way towards the thicket in the distance.

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Back at the gym…

Misty dug into her pocket and retrieved one of her pokeballs. She thought long and hard for this and believed that this pokemon would win this round. The gym leader pressed the button to enlarge it and prepared to throw the capsule in the air.

"You're a tough trainer Adair," Misty started. "But I think it's time I turn the tides! Now go Poli-!"

She was about to hurl her capsule when a sudden bright light erupted from her right pocket. She watched in astonishment as the lone stream of light traveled through the air and into the middle platform below. All of the trainers watched as well, wondering what was happening. Luna on the other hand, wanted to smack her face, for she knew what was going on.

The light manifested into a small pokemon with a round body and a large head. When the light died down, the result was a short, duck-like creature with a large bill and stubby arms. The eyes were blank except for a single pupil in each one. Hands now on the head, the pokemon then tilted to the side.

"Psy?" Psyduck said, now slightly confused as to why he was there.

"What the!? Psyduck, I didn't call for you!" Misty exploded. "Of all the times you burst out of your pokeball unannounced, did it have to be now!?"

Adair observed both trainer and pokemon in confusion. A small sweat drop fell from her right cheek. "Uh…what?"

Back on the bleachers, everyone was trying to comprehend as to what had just happened. Both Lucif and Aquos were watching in confusion. Even Tracey, who seemed pretty indifferent and quiet for most of the time, felt pretty embarrassed for Misty. One of his eyes twitched and he resisted the urge to comment about the situation. As the referee, he was not allowed to.

"_Oh boy…not this guy. Things aren't looking too good for Misty," _Luna commented in her mind. While the gym leader yelled so many angry remarks at her pokemon, she resisted the urge to chuckle at the spectacle, or groan at how Psyduck is taking this.

"Psyduck, do you have anything to say for yourself!?" the girl with orange hair accused the poor pokemon.

He did not look back nor even twitch. All Psyduck did was tilt his head again and blink. "Psy…"

Misty groaned and pointed the pokeball at the creature. "That's it! You're going back!"

"Misty wait!" Tracey called to her. Immediately when he did that, she turned her head and observed him in confusion. "The rules of a gym battle state that once a pokemon is on the field, they must battle for that trainer. If you recall Psyduck back, that is considered forfeiting the match!"

With that said, the young woman collapsed on the ground. Her feet hung in the air and she let out stagnant groans. Her twitching made it look like she was having spasms. Misty's face switched from a frown to one of submission.

She let out a sigh. "You have got to be kidding me…"

The boy with the pink headwrap shrugged his shoulders. "Sorry."

Seconds later, the gym leader got back up, reluctant to continue because her worst pokemon was out on the field. But, as the master of the gym, she must go on with the battle. It was her duty.

"Fine…Psyduck is my second and final pokemon."

Her opponent flexed her arms and put her game face on. Weak pokemon or not, she was determined to go for the win. "Alright, I'll stick with Quagsire!"

Tracey lifted both flags up and made his announcement in an even louder voice. "If that is the case, the second round of the match will now commence! Battle begin!"

Adair performed a punch at the air in front of her and gave her command. "Quagsire, muddy water!"

As soon as she said that, the large blue tadpole fell on his back and began to spin around. When he did, he waved his arms and legs, making it seem like it was break dance. Brown water spewed from the pokemon up into the air and waved around in multiple tendrils just like in the previous round.

Misty stomped her foot and hollered at her pokemon. "Psyduck you'd better do exactly as I say! Use psychic to deflect!"

Unfortunately, the pokemon did not perform such an action. He did nothing and allowed the attack to hit him head on. Similarly in the previous round, Psyduck was being rammed by every tendril that hit him. The force of each impact caused him to be thrown in one direction, only to be hit by another murky water blast.

"Psy psy psy psy!" the duck screamed as he was slapped around viciously.

After a minute of getting rammed continuously, the last tendril slammed him onto the top left platform. The poor duck landed on his stomach and on his bill really hard. The resounding crash echoed in the gym as that portion of the tile cracked from the impact. Quagsire ceased his attack and stood back up, ready for the next order from his trainer.

"Psyduck! Get up!"

The pokemon slowly got back onto his feet, even though he had to struggle a lot to do so. He shook off the debris on his face and stared dimwittedly at his opponent.

"Come on Psyduck! Attack with water gun!" Misty gave out another order.

Like before, the pokemon did not comply. However, he did put his hands on his head and tilt again. "Psy…"

The gym leader roared in frustration. "Psyduck! Will you just listen to me for once!?"

Adair closed her eyes and let out an exasperated sigh. "Well…this is pathetic. Sludge bomb!"

The evolved form of Wooper nodded and jumped up in the air. When he did, he opened his mouth and unleashed a barrage of the disgusting purple sludge.

"Psyduck, dodge it!" Misty ordered.

Once again, the water type did not comply. The purple pellets came at him without interference. Each attack exploded on contact and forcefully pushed him down on the circle. The pokemon screamed as the sludge pounded furiously on his body. The main part that was getting hit the most was his huge head.

At the bleachers, Lucif watched the whole spectacle in astonishment. "Why isn't Psyduck doing anything? It's not like a pokemon to defy an experienced trainer's orders. Especially from a gym leader."

Luna frowned and placed her right thumb and index finger on her temples. _"Lucif, you have no idea…"_

"Well…time to end this," Adair sighed. "Quagsire, earthquake!"

The sludge stopped coming down on the poor duck. Quagsire let out a cry before leaping through the air. As he did, he spiraled down to his opponent like a speeding rocket towards a target. He planned to hit the tile hard…and with his head.

"Psyduck!" the girl in the orange jumpsuit hollered.

At that moment, Psyduck's eyes shot open. His eyes normally were blank, save for the dots for irises. However, they were different this time. Instead of the usual white, his eyes were a striking electric blue. They glowed intensely, like a fierce aura. The pokemon's expression changed from being indifferent to being determined.

The eighteen year old gasped. "What the!?"

She mouthed the words 'stop' to her Quagsire, but it was too late. He was already too far into the action.

The fallen pokemon lifted one of his webbed paws up at the incoming rival. When he did, Quagsire's body was surrounded by a tiny blue field. He stopped spiraling and became motionless. This was just when he was nearly a foot away from hitting Psyduck.

"Quag!?" he cried in surprise. He tried to move his limbs, but found that he was trapped in that strange field.

"Oh crap!" Luna yelled from the bleachers. From the back of her mind, she was worried about something like this. From her knowledge from the show, she knew that Misty's Psyduck was a pretty unpredictable pokemon. He could either follow his trainer's orders or do nothing at all, just like what had happened right now.

Misty let out a weak laugh. "It's about time…send him flying with Psychic!"

Psyduck slowly got up, not letting ghis psychic hold on his opponent go. When he did, he lifted his other arm up and waved both appendages. The helpless amphibian was subject to the waving motion and then felt himself being thrown viscously to the side. Quagsire impacted the trainer's pole with a bang, causing Adair to nearly lose her balance in the process. The pokemon then fell into the water below.

"What in the-? First he ignored you completely and now he's following your orders!?" Adair, after regaining her balance, said in shock.

"Yeah…" Misty laughed sheepishly. "He's kind of like that."

"Well whatever. Sludge bomb that thing!"

The oversized tadpole jumped out of the water and opened his mouth. Unfortunately, he was too slow when he did so. Misty eyed him and carefully thought of her counterattack.

"Psyduck, disable!"

Psyduck, whose eyes still glowed blue and had his aim on his opponent, released a series of blue ring-like waves. The waves travelled quickly through the air and successfully made contact with Quagsire. When they did, the pokemon shuddered and closed his mouth.

"Quag!?" he yelped in confusion.

"What happened!?" Adair could not help but scream.

"I disabled it," the younger girl smirked. "Psyduck, finish him off with psychic attack!"

With that said, Psyduck narrowed his eyes at the pokemon. His opponent was just about to fall back onto the water but stopped within inches from the surface. Once again, Quagsire let out screams as he was thrown wildly like a ragdoll. He was slammed many times from the various platforms, to the ceiling, and also to Adair's viewing pole.

"Quag! Quag! Quag!" he shrieked with each consecutive hit on different surfaces.

"Quagsire!" Adair shouted as she helplessly watched her pokemon suffer from the multitude of hits.

At the bleachers, all of the trainers and Aquos followed the movement of the pokemon in the air. Each of them winced as he collided with each part of the gym.

"Ooh…" Luna closed one eye and partially looked away. She tried to look away for a moment when the water and ground dual type collided with an iron beam at the ceiling. "That's got to hurt. How many times has he been hit with this move?"

The boy with the vest was speechless for the next few seconds. When he found the right words to say, he did so in a strained voice. "I don't know…I lost track at five."

The attack seemed to last forever. But finally, it ended. Psyduck used his mind powers to throw Quagsire up at the ceiling for one final time. The impact caused an identation in his body shape to appear. Debris from above fell down to the pool, making small splashes when the touched the surface. The pokemon, who was now covered in bruises and scrapes due to all the slamming and throwing around, fell back to the water. At first, he disappeared from view. But when he came back up, he was floating on his back, unmoving. The familiar spiral patterns were clear on his eyes.

"Sire…" he whimpered in defeat.

Tracey lifted the red flag up to Misty's side. "Quagsire is unable to battle. The winner of the round is Psyduck!"

"Holy Arceus…" Adair breathed out, eyes wide as marbles. She slowly brought up her pokemon's capsule and returned him. The red light enveloped the fainted pokemon and absorbed him into the container. "You've got to be kidding me…"

"Phew…" Misty exhaled. She had just wiped a sweat drop from her forehead from all the stress. "I didn't think we'd win this one. Good job Psyduck."

But Psyduck did not pay attention to that compliment. Once his eyes returned to normal, he held his head again and turned it to the right side.

"Psy…"

The gym leader looked down at the ground in slight annoyance. "Right…"

Off to the sidelines, Lucif and Aquos had the same expression as Adair. They were just as surprised at the fact that this tiny Psyduck beat Adair's pokemon, especially in that manner. Luna was not all that surprised, but she was now nervous for her friend. This Psyduck was a dimwit and usually annoying, but he was also tough, specifically when his psychic powers activate.

"Um…" Lucif stammered. "Okay? I never thought this Psyduck would know psychic."

The fifteen year old frowned. "Man…that duck is something…"

"Vapor," Aquos agreed with both trainers.

Things were not looking very good for Adair. Originally, she was off to a good start. But this pokemon had really messed up her game! The girl clenched her hands into fists and growled at the little bird. For something so small, he could be so annoying. Indeed he has a chronic headache, but the result of this round gave Adair a headache too. She put a hand on her forehead and rubbed it slightly to ease the pain.

"This is going to be harder than I thought…"

_And there you go. End of part 2. Things for Adair aren't looking very good. Psyduck's a beast whenever he's got a headache! Will Adair be able to win her badge? Will Shadow ever find Sandslash and Pikachu? Speaking of which, what kind of trouble has Sandslash gotten himself into? Find out next time on Pokemon Rising Champions! Stay tuned…_


End file.
